LB 
3483 

"op.l     Ayre; 


Southern   Branch 
of  the 

University  of  California 

Los  Angeles 

LB 
3^83 

A98o 
cop.  I 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


AN  2     1929 
JUL  3  1   1929 


^N  f>      1942 
DEC  Z  0  1951 i 


rniin  L-9-15,-(-10."25 


OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 


Us  aN«. 


,:  t  V  f  ■■* 


Vilhv* 


Also  communicable 

One  of  Chicago's  open-air  schoolgirls,  as  pictured  by 

The  Survey 


OPEN-AIR    SCHOOLS 


BY 
LEONARD   P.  AYRES,  Ph.D. 

ASSOCIATE     DIKECTOR     DEPARTMENT    OF    CHILD    HYGIENE, 
RUSSELL    SAGE    FOUNDATION 


FORMER  GENERAL    SUPERINTENDENT   OF    SCHOOLS 

FOR   PORTO   Rico;     CO-AUTHOR   OF    "MEDICAL    INSPECTION   OF 

SCHOOLS;"     AUTHOR   OF    "LAGGARDS   IN   OUR  SCHOOLS" 


^So^ 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  YORK 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

1910 


SIAIENOKMALSCMUUL, 
lios  s?:cii:i3s,  via. 


ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED,  INCLUDING  THAT  OF  TRANSLATION 
INTO  FOREIGN  LANGUAGES,  INCLUDING  THE  SCANDINAVIAN 


COFYRIGBX,   I910,  By  DOUBLEDAY.  PAGE  &  COUPANY 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER   I 

PAGE 

Origin  and  Development  ....  3 

Beginnings  at  Charlpttenburg,  1904  —  Spread  throughout 
Grermany  —  First  English  school  at  Bostall  Wood,  1907  — 
First  American  school  at  Providence,  1908  —  The  Porto 
Rican  experiment  —  Spread  throughout  America  —  Future 
of  the  open-air  school. 

CHAPTER  II 

Open-Air-Recovery  Schools  in  Germany       13 

First  forest  school  at  Charlottenburg,  1904  —  Cooperation 
of  educator  and  school  physician  —  Description  of  plant  — 
Daily  programme  —  Physical  care  —  Physical  results  — 
Educational  results  —  Schools  at  Miilhausen  and  Miinchen- 
Gladbach  —  Other  Grerman  schools. 

CHAPTER  III 

Open- Air  Schools  in  England  ...        29 

First  school  established  by  London  County  Council  at 
Bostall  Wood,  1907  —  Object  of  school  —  Situation  of 
school  —  Selection  of  children  —  Daily  programme  —  Teach- 
ing staff  —  Feeding  of  children  —  Physical  examinations  — 
Cost  of  school  —  Physical  results  —  Educational  results  — 
School  transferred  to  Shooters  Hill,  Woolwich,  1908  — 
Two  new  schools  opened  at  Horniman  Park  and  Kentish 
Town  —  The  Bradford  school  —  Description  of  children  — 
Daily  programme  —  Results. 


vi  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  IV 


PAGE 


Open- Air  Schools  in  the  United  States  .        45 

Intimate  connection  with  anti-tuberculosis  campaigns  — 
First  school  at  I'rovidence,  1908  —  Description  of  plant  — 
Description  of  children  —  Daily  programme  —  Support  — 
Results  —  First  Boston  School,  1908,  at  Parker  Hill — 
Reorganization,  1909,  at  Franklin  Park  —  Description  of 
plant  —  Daily  programme  —  Results  —  Second  reorganiza- 
tion —  Report  of  special  advisory  committee  of  Boston 
School  Committee  —  Selection  of  Boston  children  for  open- 
air  classes  —  First  New  York  School,  1908,  on  ferry-boat 
Southfield  —  Schools  on  other  ferry-boats  —  Pro\ision  for 
open-air  rooms  —  Selection  of  children  —  Control  of  tem- 
perature —  Support  —  Chicago's  first  school,  1909  —  De- 
scription of  plant  —  Jlesults  —  School  reorganized  for  win- 
ter of  1909  —  Results  in  winter  school  —  Chicago's  oj>en- 
air  rooms  for  normal  children  —  Results  of  experiment  — 
Hartford's  tent  school,  1909  —  Schools  in  Rochester  and 
Pittsburgh. 

^  CHAPTER  V 

Results 75 

Physical  results  at  Charlottenburg,  Miilhausen,  and  Miinchen- 
Gladbach  —  Gains  in  weight  at  Bostall  Wood  —  Diagrams 
showing  gains  in  weight  —  Physical  results  at  Bradford  — 
Physical  gains  at  Chicago  —  Results  in  the  Chicago  open- 
air  room  —  Haemoglobin  tests  at  Pro\'idence  —  Physical 
results  at  Boston  —  Attendance  results  in  Boston's  open- 
air  rooms  —  Educational  results. 


CHAPTER  VI 
Feeding 99 

Necessity  for  feeding  —  Daily  menu  at  Charlottenburg, 
Mulhausen,  and  Miinchen-Gladbach  —  Dietary  at  Bostall 
Wood  —  Menu  of  the  Bradford  school  —  Menu  of  the 
Chicago  school  —  School  lunches  at  Providence  —  Food 
and  food  values  in  the  Boston  school. 


CONTENTS  vii 

CHAPTER  VII 


PAGE 


Cost 113 

DiflBculty  of  computing  cost  —  Expenses  at  Charlottenburg 
—  Expenses  at  Bostall  Wood  —  Cost  of  maintenance  of  the 
Boston  and  Chicago  schools  —  General  rules  governing 
expenditures. 

CHAPTER  VIII 

Construction  and  Clothing     .        .        .123 

Work  of  Dr.  Thomas  S.  Carrington  —  Two  general  classes, 
open-air  schools  and  fresh-air  rooms  —  Description  of  tj-pi- 
cal  roof  building  —  Utihzation  of  unoccupied  dwelling- 
houses,  ferry-boats,  and  abandoned  schools  —  Structural 
changes  in  old  buildings  —  Temperature  control  —  Cloth- 
ing requirements  for  cold  weather  —  Soapstones,  water 
bottles,  foot  boxes,  sitting-out  bags  —  Clothing  for  teacher. 


CHAPTER  IX 

Forms  for  Record-Keeping      .        .        .      139 

Forms  must  record  progress  —  Providence  and  Chicago 
physical  record  cards  —  Hartford  weight  chart  —  Pupils' 
weekly  record,  Boston  —  Individual  term  record,  Boston. 


CHAPTER  X 

Need  for  Open-Air  Schools     .        .        ,      151 

American  and  European  schools  of  different  types  —  Annual 
cost  of  tuberculosis  among  school-children  —  Computations 
from  England,  Sweden,  and  five  American  cities  of  number 
of  children  needing  open-air-school  treatment  —  Selection 
of  Boston  pupils  for  open-air  classes  —  Summary  of  results. 

Bibliography 159 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Also  communicable.  One  of  Chicago's 
open-air  school  girls,  as  pictured  by  The 
Survey Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

Folk-dancing     in     Franklin     Park     School, 

Boston      .......  6 

A  class  in  basketry,  Boston  ...  7 

The    first    open-air-recovery    school  —  The 

Forest  School  at  Charlottenburg,  Germany         16 

The    Miinchen-Gladbach    School,    showing 

veranda  classroom  for  wet  weather    .         .         17 

Open-air  exercises  at  Bostall  Wood     .         .         32 

A  class  in  practical  geography,  Kentish  Town         33 

The  rest  hour  during  pleasant  weather,  in 
Kentish  Town.         .... 


Portable   buildings   constitute   the   plant  at 
Shrewsbury  House    .... 

Open-air  classroom,  Bradford,  England 

The  afternoon  rest  at  Bostall  Wood,  Eng- 
land   


Main  building,  Bradford,  showing  covered 
way  and  porch  classroom 


38 

39 
42 

42 

43 


X  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING  PAGE 

General  view  of  Thackley  open-air  school, 

Bradford,  England 43 

Letting  the  sunshine  in:  exterior.  Provi- 
dence       .......         48 

Letting  the  sunshine  in:  interior.  Provi- 
dence         48 

The  heating  and  cooking  plant  in  the  Provi- 
dence School    ......         49 

Franklin  Park  School  and  pupils,  Boston     .        52 

Individual  equipment  in  Boston  includes 
heavy  outer  clothing,  sitting-out  bag,  port- 
able desk  and  chair        ....         53 

Refreshments  outdoors,  Boston     .         .         .         54. 

Needlework  under  the  trees,  Boston      .         .         55 

The  ferry-boat  Southjield,  utilized  for  an  open- 
air  school  in  New  York  City     ...         58 

The  rest  hour  on  the  Southjield,  New  York 

City 58 

A  class  on  the  deck  of  the  Southjield  in  Jan- 
uary, New  York  City.     ....         59 

Washing  up  for  dinner  on   the  Southjield, 

New  York  City 60 

Rest  hour  in  the  cabin  of  the  Southjield,  dur- 
ing very  stormy  weather.  New  York  City         61 

Outdoor  class  on  the  roof  of  Public  School  21, 

Manhattan,  New  York  City     ...         64 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xi 

FACING  PAGE 

The    classroom    tent    of    the   first    Chicago 

school       .......         65 

Tent  interior,  Chicago    .....         65 

Open-air  exercise,  Chicago    ....         66 

Hartford  class,  with  appropriate  but  inex- 
pensive equipment    .....         67 

A  classroom  is  used  as  a  dining-room  at  Roch- 
ester        .......         68 

Hand-work  is  a   prominent   feature   in   the 

Rochester  school      .....         68 

The  rest  hour  at  Rochester    ....         69 

Garden  work  was  popular  at  Bostall  Wood         92 

Halifax,  England.     The  children  help  in  such 

tasks  as  cleaning  cutlery    ....         92 

Working  out  trade  routes  between  Europe  and 

North  America,   Dulwich        ...         93 

Dinner  time  in  the  first  English  school  at 

Bostall  Wood 100 

At  the  Birley  House  School,  Dulwich,  Eng- 
land, meals  are  eaten  out-of-doors  in  true 
picnic  style 101 

Hot  soup  at  recess  time.  Providence     .         .       106 

Forenoon  refreshment  in  the  Chicago  school       107 

Dinner  time  at  the  Franklin  Park  School, 

Boston      .......       108 

Lunch  hour  at  Hartford       .  .         .       108 


xii  ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING  PAGE 


Dinner  hour  on  the  Sonthfield,  New  York  City       109 

Class    and    roof    building,    Franklin    Park 

School,   Boston         .....       124 

Photograph  of  the  Chicago  roof  tent  as 
published  by  The  Survey  to  illustrate 
permanent   construction  ....       125 

Open  air  —  open  minds.  Used  by  The 
Survey  to  illustrate  class  work  in  the 
Chicago   school         .....       126 

Wind  shelter  at  the  New  York  School  Farm       127 

The   Hartford   School  in   an    army   tent   in 

February 128 

The  windows  at  the  Providence  school  are 
hinged  at  the  top,  and  can  be  raised 
against  the  ceiling  by  cords  and  pulleys       129 

With  sitting-out  bags,  soapstones,  heavy  outer 
clothing,  children  are  comfortable  even  in 
the  coldest  weather.  Providence      .         .       130 

Some    Providence    children    equipped    with 

sitting-out  bags        .....       131 
Rest  hour,  Franklin  Park  School,  Boston      .       132 

Hand-work  receives  as  much  attention  as 
health- work  and  head-work  on  the  South- 
field,  New  York  City      .         .         .         .133 

Tables  and  chairs  are  substituted  for  desks 
and  seats  in  the  fresh-air  rooms  of  the 
Graham  School,   Chicago        .         .         .       133 

Fresh-air    fiends    in    the    Graham    School, 

Chicago  .......       140 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xiii 

CHARTS,    DIAGRAMS,    ETC. 

PAGE 

Chart  I.     Variations  in  weight  of  Kathleen 

M ,  Bostall  Wood  Open-air  School    .        80 

Chart  II.     Variations  in  weight  of  Arthur, 

Bostall  Wood  Open-air  School        .         .         81 

Chart  III.  Showing  the  average  weekly  gain 
or  loss  in  weight  of  children  attending  the 
Bradford  Open-air  School,  in  1908    .         .         86 

Chart  IV.     Haemoglobin    tests.   Providence 

Open-air  School,  1908      ....         89 

Attendance  in  Prescott  School,  Boston,  in 
1907,  of  same  class  during  two  and  a  half 
months  indoors,  and  two  and  a  half 
months  outdoors     ....  94 

Dr.  Carrington's  sitting-out  bag     .         .          .       135 

Individual  record  card  used    at   Providence 

[facing  page] 141 

Record  card  —  Chicago  Open-air   School     .       142 

Individual  weight  chart  —  Hartford  Open- 
air  School        ......       143 

Personal     record      sheet  —  Franklin     Park 

School 146 

Personal  term  record  —  Franklin  Park  School       147 


INTRODUCTION 

The  object  of  this  little  book  is  to  place 
before  school  superintendents,  teachers,  and 
others  interested  in  educational  work  the 
essential  features  of  present  knowledge 
about  open-air  schools.  It  makes  no  claims 
to  originality,  and  its  material  is  largely 
taken  from  reports  of  the  different  schools 
in  Germany,  England,  and  the  several 
American  cities. 

Information  concerning  the  German  and 
English  schools  has  been  taken  largely  from 
a  report  published  in  1908  by  the  London 
County  Council.  Much  of  the  material 
©oncerning  the  Providence  and  Boston 
schools  in  the  United  States  is  from  a  report 
entitled  "  Outdoor  Schools,"  published  in 
1909  by  the  Boston  Association  for  the 
Relief  and  Control  of  Tuberculosis. 

In  less  measure  other  reports  have  also 
been  used  as  sources,  and  the  information 


xvi  Introduction 

gleaned  from  them  has  been  supplemented 
by  means  of  extensive  correspondence, 
wide  use  of  press  clippings  secured  through 
newspaper  clipping  agencies,  and  personal 
visits  to  several  of  the  schools  described. 

So  many  persons  interested  in  the  new 
type  of  school  have  aided  by  supplying 
facts,  records,  and  photographs  that  it  is 
impossible  to  give  due  credit  to  all  indi- 
vidually. Among  those  to  whom  special 
thanks  are  due  are  Dr.  Gardner  T.  Swarts, 
Dr.  Ellen  Stone,  and  Miss  Ellen  LeGarde 
of  Providence;  Dr.  Thomas  F.  Harrington, 
Miss  Isabel  Hyams,  and  Mr.  Alexander  M. 
Wilson  of  Boston;  Dr.  Henry  F.  Stoll, 
Miss  Clara  A.  Pausch  and  the  editor  of 
the  Daily  Courant,  of  Hartford;  Mr. 
Sherman  Kingsley,  Mr.  Frank  E.  Wing, 
Mr.  William  E.  Watt,  and  V.  H.  Palachek, 
Managing  Editor  of  the  Examiner,  of 
Chicago;  Dr.  William  H.  Maxwell  and 
Dr.  Gustave  Straubenmiiller  of  the  New 
York  Department  of  Education;  Dr. 
Thomas  S.  Carrington  of  the  National 
Association  for  the  Prevention  and  Cure  of 


Introduction  xvii 

Tuberculosis;  Mr.  Thomas  Hanly  of  the 
Van  Norden  Magazine;  Mr.  Arthur  P. 
Kellogg,  of  the  Survey;  and  Mr.  Tho. 
Garbutt,  Secretary  of  the  Bradford  Educa- 
tion Committee,  Bradford,  England. 

Leonard  P.  Ayres. 
June,   1910. 


ORIGIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT 


SlAUEKOKJU/aSaiyiiL, 


CHAPTER  I 

ORIGIN^AND    DEVELOPMENT 

/esc>3 

IN  THE  year  1904  there  was  opened  in 
Charlottenburg,  a  suburb  of  Berlin, 
a  school  of  a  new  type  to  which  the  Ger- 
mans gave  the  name  "open-air-recovery 
school."  The  object  of  the  founders  was 
to  create  a  school  where  children  could  be 
taught  and  cured  at  the  same  time,  and  it 
is  this  same  purpose  which  has  actuated  the 
founders  of  all  of  the  other  schools  of  similar 
type  which  have  since  been  opened. 

The  new  educational  venture  was  a 
school  designed  for  backward  and  physi- 
cally debilitated  pupils  who  could  not  keep 
up  with  the  work  in  the  regular  schools  and 
were  not  so  mentally  deficient  that  they  were 
fit  subjects  for  the  classes  for  subnormal 
pupils.  It  was  felt  that  if  these  children 
were  sent  to  sanatoria  they  would  undoubt- 
edly improve  physically,  but  would  fall  back 

3 


4  OPEN-AIR   SCHOOLS 

in  their  school  work.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
they  were  kept  in  the  regular  schools,  they 
would  deteriorate  physically. 

It  was  to  meet  this  need  that  the  new 
type  of  school  was  devised.'  It  was  a  school 
held  almost  entirely  in  the  open  air.  The 
treatment  consisted  of  an  outdoor  life, 
plenty  of  good  food,  strict  cleanliness,  suit- 
able clothing,  and  school  work  modified  in 
kind  and  reduced  in  quantity. 

Few  educational  innovations  have  made 
so  quick  an  appeal,  to  the  popular  imagina- 
tion as  did  the  open-air  school.  During  its 
first  season  the  school  at  Charlottenburg 
was  open  for  only  three  months,  but  imme- 
diately upon  the  publication  of  the  report 
of  what  had  been  accomplished,  the  desire~j? 
to  found  other  similar  schools  spread 
throughout  Germany.  The  children  who 
had  been  the  fortunate  subjects  of  this  first 
open-air  experiment  had  made  wonderful 
physical  gains.  They  had  increased  rapidly 
in  weight  and  in  strength,  and  many  who 
had  been  suffering  from  serious  ailments 
had  been  entirely  cured. 

Such  results  as  these  were  gratifying  but 


ORIGIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT  5 

not  very  surprising,  for  it  was  nothing  new 
to  discover  that  the  best  sort  of  sanatorium 
treatment  combining  an  outdoor  life  and 
plenty  of  good  food  will  prove  physically 
beneficial  to  those  who  enjoy  its  advantages. 
Such  results  were  especially  natural  when 
the  patients  were  growing  children.  But 
what  was  not  foreseen  and  did  come  as  a 
distinct  surprise  was  that  the  children  in  the 
Charlottenburg  school  did  not  fall  back  in 
their  school  studies  although  they  spent  less 
than  half  as  much  time  on  school  work  as 
did  their  companions  in  the  regular  schools. 
They  not  only  fully  maintained  their  school 
standings,  but  rather  surpassed  their  com- 
panions in  the  regular  classes. 

It  was  these  reports  of  combined  physical 
and  mental  benefit  that  spread  at  once 
throughout  Germany  and  caused  the  school 
authorities  of  other  cities  to  begin  the  erec- 
tion of  open-air  schools.  In  less  than  three 
years  the  movement  had  spread  to  England, 
and  in  1907  London  opened  its  first  school. 
The  results  obtained  during  the  first  season 
were  as  remarkable  as  those  reported  three 
years  previously  from  the  suburb  of  Berlin. 


/ 


6  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

Again  the  accomplishments  of  the  new  type 
of  school  awakened  popular  enthusiasm, 
and  towns  and  cities  in  different  parts  of 
Great  Britain  began  to  plan  for  other  similar 
establishments. 

Meanwhile  the  movement  had  spread  to 
America,  where  the  first  open-air  school  was 
established  in  1908  by  the  city  of  Providence, 
Rhode  Island.  Although  the  Providence 
school  is  the  first  American  school  of  the 
type  originated  in  Charlottenburg  and  which 
we  are  here  considering,  it  was  not  strictly 
speaking  the  first  open-air  school  estab- 
lished on  American  territory. 

So  far  as  can  be  learned,  the  first  such 
school  under  the  American  flag  was  built 
in  the  city  of  San  Juan,  Porto  Rico,  in  1904, 
by  the  author  of  the  present  work,  who  was 
at  that  time  superintendent  of  schools  of 
the  Porto  Rican  capital.  The  school  in 
question  was  an  experimental  building 
made  to  accommodate  one  hundred  chil- 
dren. It  had  a  floor  and  roof,  but  no  sides. 
Venetian  blinds  were  provided  to  keep 
out  driving  rain  and  too  direct  sunlight. 
This  school  was  designed  for  children  of 


o 


fe 


fee 

.S 
'3 

a 

T3 


■^«i^ 


ORIGIN  AND   DEVELOPMENT  7 

no  particular  class,  but  was  built  in  the 
endeavour  to  demonstrate  that  the  treat- 
ment which  has  proved  beneficial  for  weak 
and  ailing  people  will  also  benefit  strong 
and  normal  children. 

The  results  demonstrated  the  correct- 
ness of  the  proposition.  The  children 
greatly  preferred  the  outdoor  classes  to  those 
in  the  regular  school  buildings,  and  there 
were  always  on  file  applications  from 
teachers  who  wished  to  be  assigned  to  the 
outdoor  work.  At  least  one  other  open- 
air  school  has  been  built  in  Porto  Rico 
because  of  the  success  of  the  first  experiment. 

Coming  back  to  the  United  States,  we 
find  Boston  following  the  lead  of  Providence 
and  during  the  month  of  July,  1908,  estab- 
lishing a  "school  of  outdoor  life."  In 
January  of  the  same  year  New  York  opened 
its  first  school  of  the  new  type  on  an 
abandoned  ferry-boat.  During  the  next 
summer  Chicago  opened  its  first  outdoor 
school  and  has  since  continued  the  work. 
Hartford,  Rochester,  and  Pittsburgh  have 
also  taken  up  the  movement  and  are 
operating  open-air  schools. 


8  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

It  is  now  realized  in  several  of  these  cities 
that  the  movement  is  past  the  experimental 
stage  and  is  to  be  reckoned  with  as  an 
established  feature  of  educational  practice. 
The  educational  authorities  of  Boston  have 
adopted  a  resolution  providing  that  each 
new  schoolhouse  built  in  that  city  shall 
have  at  least  one  open-air  classroom.  New 
York  City  has  taken  a  somewhat  simi- 
lar action,  and  is  at  the  present  time 
remodelling  twenty  classrooms  in  different 
buildings  so  that  they  can  be  used  for 
open-air  classes. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  two  greatest  dis- 
coveries of  recent  times  are  the  value  of 
children  and  the  virtues  of  an  open-air  life. 
It  is  questionable  whether  we  should  all 
agree  in  according  preeminence  to  these 
two  so-called  discoveries,  but  there  can  be 
no  question  that  there  has  been  in  the  last 
few  years  a  wonderful  public  awakening 
along  both  of  these  lines. 

This  may  account  for  the  enthusiastic 
reception  which  has  been  almost  univer- 
sally accorded  to  the  open-air  school.  It 
is  an  educational  innovation  that  combines 


ORIGIN  AND   DEVELOPMENT  9 

within    itself   a   new   kind    of   particularly  |» 
effective  work  for  children  and  an  appeal-  * 
ing   object-lesson   in   the   beneficial   results 
of  the  outdoor  life. 

It  is  entirely  too  soon  to  prophesy  what 
the  future  of  the  open-air  school  may  be. 
That  many  such  schools  will  shortly  be  in 
operation  is  a  foregone  conclusion,  and  that 
their  effect  on  educational  progress  will  be 
far-reaching  seems  almost  as  sure.  Just 
what  this  effect  will  be,  none  can  foretell, 
but  it  seems  not  improbable  that  the  open- 
air  school  will  be  recognized  by  future 
historians  of  education  not  merely  as  a 
therapeutic  agent,  but  rather  as  marking 
one  long  step  toward  that  school  of  the 
future  in  which  the  child  will  not  have  to 
be  either  feeble-minded  or  delinquent  or 
tuberculous  or  truant  to  enjoy  the  best  and 
fullest  sort  of  educational  opportunity. 


OPEN-Am-RECOA-ERY  SCHOOLS 
IN   GERMANY 


■/ 


CHAPTER  II 

OPEN-AIR-RECOVERY  SCHOOLS    IN    GERMANY 

EARLY  in  the  year  1908  the  London 
County  Council  published  in  the 
same  pamphlet  a  report  of  the  work  of  the 
open-air  school  conducted  at  Bostall  ^Yood 
during  the  summer  of  1907  and  a  report  of 
the  Council's  educational  adviser  on  the 
open-air  schools  of  Germany.  It  is  from 
this  latter  report  that  the  following  de- 
scription of  the  German  schools  is  largely 
taken. 

Medical  inspection  of  schools  has  been 
carried  on  in  a  very  thorough  and  efficient 
manner  in  Germany  for  the  past  fifteen 
years.  This  has  drawn  special  attention 
throughout  the  Empire  to  backward  chil- 
dren. These  children  are  treated  in  special 
classes  and  sometimes  in  special  schools. 
The  quantity  of  the  instruction  given  them 
is  reduced,  and  every  endeavour  is  made  to 

13 


14  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

keep,  and  even  to  increase,  its  quality.  The 
classes  are  taught  by  the  most  capable 
teachers,  and  the  children  are  specially 
favoured  in  such  hygienic  instruction  con- 
nected with  the  schools  as  baths,  meals, 
and  holiday  homes.  Under  this  treatment 
the  children  improve  so  rapidly  that  the 
majority  of  them  can,  in  the  course  of  a 
few  weeks,  be  passed  back  into  the  ordi- 
nary schools. 

In  the  year  1904  there  were  in  Charlotten- 
burg,  a  suburb  of  Berlin,  a  large  number 
of  these  backward  children  who  were  about 
to  be  removed  from  the  ordinary  elemen- 
tary schools  to  special  classes.  Upon  exam- 
ination it  was  found  that  many  of  them 
were  in  a  debilitated  state  owing  to  anaemia 
and  to  various  ailments  in  incipient  stages. 
Thie  circumstance  afforded  an  ideal  oppor- 
tunity for  the  cooperation  of  the  educator 
and  the  school  physician,  and  to  meet  the 
need  a  new  type  of  school  was  devised. 
This  was  the  open-air-recovery  school. 
Its  province  was  to  carry  on  the  instruction 
of  the  children  with  the  help  of  improved 
methods  and  surroundings,  and  at  the  same 


SCHOOLS  IN   GERMANY  15 

time  to  endeavour  to  cure  or  better  the  ail- 
ments from  which  they  were  suffering. 

The  open-air-recovery  school  as  first 
developed  in  Charlottenburg  is  a  new  type 
of  school  modified  to  meet  the  educational 
and  physical  needs  of  sick  children.  The 
school  physician  insists  upon  open-air  treat- 
ment, pleasant  and  hygienic  surroundings, 
careful  supervision,  wholesome  food,  and 
judicious  exercise.  The  teacher  modifies 
the  ordinary  school  work  to  meet  the  new 
conditions.  The  hours  of  formal  teaching 
are  cut  in  two,  and  the  classes  are  so  reduced 
that  no  teacher  has  more  than  twenty-five 
pupils  in  charge.  Moreover,  the  character 
of  the  work  is  modified.  All  that  is  not 
truly  essential  is  omitted,  and  every  endeav- 
our is  made  to  utilize  the  many  opportunities 
afforded  by  the  close  contact  with  nature 
which  is  the  ever-present  characteristic  of 
the  school. 

In  Charlottenburg  a  suitable  place  for  the 
school  was  chosen  in  a  large  pine  forest 
on  the  outskirts  of  the  town.  The  sum 
of  $8,000  was  voted  by  the  municipality 
for  carrying  out  the  experiment,  and  primi- 


16  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

live  but  suitable  wooden  buildings  were 
erected. 

At  the  outset,  ninety-five  children  were 
chosen,  and  this  number  was  afterward 
increased  to  one  hundred  twenty,  and  still 
later  to  two  hundred  fifty.  These  chil- 
dren were  mainly  anaemic  children  and 
those  suffering  from  lighter  forms  of  pul- 
monary, heart,  and  scrofulous  diseases. 
Children  suffering  from  acute  or  infectious 
diseases  were  rigidly  excluded. 

Five  main  buildings  were  erected.  Three 
of  them  are  plain  sheds  about  eighty-one 
feet  long  and  eighteen  feet  wide.  One  of 
these  is  completely  open  on  the  south  side, 
and  closed  on  the  other  sides,  and  provides 
accommodations  during  rainy  weather  for 
about  two  hundred  children  during  the  after- 
noon period  of  compulsory  rest.  The  two 
other  sheds  contain  five  classrooms  and  the 
teachers'  room.  These  two  buildings  are 
closed  in  on  all  sides,  provided  with  heat- 
ing arrangements,  and  are  only  used  for 
instruction  in  very  cold  and  unpleasant 
weather.  They  are  both  portable  build- 
ings.    In  the  classrooms,  instead  of  desks. 


c 
B 

O 

3 

a 


S3 


o 


o 
o 

o 


a, 
o 


SCHOOLS  IN  GERIVIANY  17 

simple  tables  and  chairs  of  different  heights 
and  sizes  are  provided.  The  last  two  of  the 
five  buildings  are  very  large  sheds  open  on 
all  sides  and  fitted  with  tables  and  benches. 
They  are  intended  for  meals  and  for  work 
during  rain  or  too  bright  sunshine. 

All  over  the  school  area,  which  is  fenced 
in,  there  are  small  sheds  open  on  all  sides 
and  fitted  with  tables  and  benches  to  accom- 
modate from  four  to  six  children.  They 
serve;  like  the  larger  sheds,  for  writing  or 
reading  during  too  much  sunshine.  There 
are  small  buildings  for  showier  baths  and  the 
kitchen,  and  a  shed  where  the  wraps  of  the 
boys  and  girls  are  kept.  In  these  sheds 
there  are  also  individual  lockers  which  con- 
tain, among  other  things,  numbered  rugs 
for  protection  against  cold,  and  waterproofs 
for  protection  against  rain. 

The  children  arrive  at  the  school  a  little 
before  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Those 
who  live  near  come  on  foot,  and  the  others 
come  in  special  electric  cars.  Upon  their 
arrival  the  children  receive  a  bowl  of  soup 
and  a  slice  of  bread  and  butter.  The 
classes  commence  at  eight  o'clock  with  an 


18  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS  , 

interval  of  five  minutes  after  every  half- 
hour  of  teaching.  The  instruction  is  re- 
duced to  the  most  necessary  subjects  and 
is  never  given  for  more  than  two  consecu- 
tive hours.  At  ten  o'clock  the  children 
receive  one  or  two  glasses  of  milk  and  an- 
other slice  of  bread  and  butter.  After  this 
they  play  about,  perform  gymnastic  exer- 
cises, do  manual  work,  or  read.  Mean- 
while the  same  process  in  the  reverse  order 
is  carried  on  with  other  children  who  play 
during  the  first  two  hours  and  study  from 
ten  to  twelve. 

Dinner  is  served  at  half-past  twelve  and 
consists  of  about  three  ounces  of  meat  with 
vegetables  and  soup.  After  dinner  the 
children  rest  or  sleep  for  two  hours.  For 
this  purpose  folding  chairs  and  rugs  are 
provided  and  absolute  quiet  is  required. 
At  thjee  o'clock  there  are  some  classes,  and 
at  four  milk,  rye  bread,  and  jam  are  dis- 
tributed. The  rest  of  the  afternoon  is  de- 
voted to  informal  instruction  and  play. 
The  last  meal,  consisting  of  soup,  bread  and 
butter,  is  given  at  a  quarter  to  seven.  After 
this  the  children  return  home  as  they  came, 


\ 


SCHOOLS   IN   GERISIANY  19 

some  on  foot  and  some  in  the  electric  cars. 
In  the  case  of  some  of  the  very  poor  chil- 
dren, the  municipality  pays  the  fares,  while 
transportation  is  furnished  some  of  the 
others  through  the  generosity  of  the  street- 
car company. 

The  expense  of  feeding  the  children  is 
borne  by  the  municipality  in  the  cases  of 
those  children  who  are  unable  to  pay,  and 
is  defrayed  in  part  or  in  whole  by  the 
parents  when  they  are  able  to  do  so. 

The  work  of  the  school  physician  consists 
first  in  the  careful  examination  and  selection 
of  the  children  for  the  open-air  school,  and 
secondly  in  their  treatment  while  they  are 
in  attendance.  Attention  is  principally  di- 
rected to  the  heart,  lungs,  and  the  general 
condition  of  the  children  with  respect  to 
colour,  muscular  and  flesh  development. 
At  the  end  of  each  two  weeks  they  are  care- 
fully weighed  and  measured.  At  the  end 
of  the  open-air  period  they  are  all  carefully 
examined  and  the  condition  of  each  com- 
pared with  that  noted  upon  entrance  into 
the  school. 

The  prescriptions  of  the  doctor  chiefly 


-X-- 


20  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

concern  such  questions  of  applied  hygiene 
as  suitable  clothing,  the  daily  habits  of  chil- 
dren suffering  with  heart  and  pulmonary 
troubles,  and  the  ordering  of  warm  baths 
for  anaemic  and  nervous  children  and  of 
mineral  baths  for  the  scrofulous  ones.  At 
Charlottenburg  bathing  plays  a  very  im- 
portant part  in  the  every-day  life.  Dur- 
ing the  first  year  thirty-three  children  re- 
ceived two  mineral  baths  per  week  and 
twenty-five  children  two  or  three  warm 
baths  per  week.  All  of  the  children  re- 
ceived two  or  three  warm  shower  baths 
each  week.  At  the  beginning  and  end  of 
the  term  the  school  doctor  came  every  day, 
and  during  the  middle  portion  two  or  three 
times  a  week.  He  was  assisted  by  a  trained 
nurse. 

During  the  first  year  the  school  was  open 
for  three  months.  After  a  few  weeks  a  great 
improvement  in  the  condition  of  the  children 
was  shown  by  their  better  appetite,  attention, 
and  general  temperament.  In  nearly  every 
case  the  children  were  greatly  improved  in 
physical  condition,  and  a  large  number 
were  pronounced  cured.     On  the  average 


SCHOOLS  IN   GERIVIANY  21 

they  gained  one-half  a  pound  each  week 
during  the  entire  period.  Many  of  them 
increased  by  eight  or  ten  pounds  during  the 
three  months,  and  some  of  them  by  as  much 
as  eighteen  pounds. 

The  educational  results  were  no  less  re- 
markable. All  of  the  teachers  agreed  in 
noticing  a  marked  increase  in  the  mental 
alertness  of  the  children  during  the  hours  of 
teaching.  In  the  great  majority  of  cases 
the  results  of  the  school  work  w^ere  quite 
satisfactory.  Three  months  after  the  re- 
turn of  the  children  to  their  various  schools 
in  town,  reports  by  the  principals  showed 
that  almost  without  exception  the  children 
were  able  to  continue  in  a  normal  manner 
in  their  former  classes.  In  other  cases  their 
progress  was  even  more  satisfactory  than 
before  their  attendance  at  the  open-air 
school.  These  results  are  significant  and 
suggest  pertinent  inquiries  as  to  current 
pedagogical  methods. 

No  less  important  were  the  improvements 
noted  in  the  moral  tone  of  the  children. 
Their  behaviour  showed  great  improve- 
ment, especially  with  regard  to  order,  clean- 


22  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

liness,  self-help,  punctuality,  and  good  tem- 
per. This  was  the  logical  result  of  their 
removal  during  practically  all  of  their  wak- 
ing hours  from  the  influences  of  street  life 
to  those  of  more  wholesome  conditions  in  the 
school.  They  were  taught  to  regard  them- 
selves as  members  of  a  large  family  and 
were  trained  to  assist  in  the  work  of  the  daily 
life  of  the  community  and  to  be  helpful 
and  considerate  toward  one  another. 

In  the  first  year  of  the  school  the  term 
was  only  three  months  in  length.  In  the 
second  year  it  was  increased  to  six,  and  in 
1906  it  was  continued  for  eight  months. 
This  carried  the  term  up  to  the  twenty-sec- 
ond of  December,  when  there  was  snow  on 
the  ground.  The  authorities  feel  that  they 
cannot  carry  the  school  on  right  through  the 
winter  until  they  have  solved  the  question 
of  heat.  This  will  probably  involve  an 
extra  expenditure  for  more  solidly  built 
schoolrooms  with  thick  walls  and  better 
heating  arrangements.  When  these  changes 
are  wrought,  the  school  will  probably  be 
carried  on  through  the  whole  winter. 

No  sooner  had  the  reports  of  the  first 


SCHOOLS  IN  GERIMANY  23 

year's  work  at  Charlottenburg  been  printed 
than  interest  in  the  new  type  of  school  was 
awakened  throughout  Germany.  In  1906  an 
open-air  school  was  established  by  the  muni- 
cipality of  Mulhausen,  in  a  park  with  a  large 
residence  called  the  "Hermitage,"  situated 
in  the  southern  portion  of  the  town.  It 
was  purchased  by  the  municipality  at  a  cost 
of  $50,000  for  the  use  of  the  school  children. 
Much  of  the  experience  gained  in  Charlot- 
tenburg was  utilized  in  the  new  school. 
During  the  first  year  one  hundred  children 
were  in  attendance.  The  daily  routine  did 
not  differ  greatly  from  that  followed  in 
Charlottenburg.  .  The  results  of  the  work 
at  Mulhausen  have  been  very  satisfactory, 
although  not  so  comprehensive  as  at  Char- 
lottenburg, for  the  reason  that  the  period  of 
attendance  was  shorter  and  the  records  less 
complete. 

During  the  same  year,  1906,  a  school  was 
opened  at  Mlinchen-Gladbach  near  Co- 
logne. It  was  established  in  memory  of 
the  silver  wedding  of  the  Emperor  and 
Empress.  It  is  situated  in  a  pine  wood 
some  distance  from  the  town,  and  consists 


24  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

of  a  simple  school  building  with  shed 
attached,  closely  surrounded  on  three  sides 
by  pine  trees,  but  with  a  clearing  on  the 
south  side. 

Gymnastic  apparatus,  a  circular  path  for 
running,  apparatus  for  games,  and  garden 
supplies  are  provided.  The  wooden  build- 
ings have  been  erected  in  the  artistic  North- 
ern style  to  be  seen  in  the  Scandinavian 
countries.  The  whole  expenditure  for  build- 
ing and  equipment  amounts  to  about  $4,000. 

During  1906  the  school  was  opened  from 
May  to  October,  and  the  highest  attend- 
ance (58)  was  reached  in  September. 
The  children  attended  on  Sundays  and 
holidays,  as  well  as  on  other  days,  but 
were  given  no  instruction.  During  1907 
the  experiment  was  tried  of  keeping  the 
school  open  for  eight  months,  but  per- 
mitting any  individual  child  to  attend  for 
two  months  only.  As  the  school  accommo- 
dates about  fifty  children,  this  new  arrange- 
ment would  permit  of  treating  two  hun- 
dred children  annually.  Moreover,  the 
plans  contemplate  enlarging  the  school  and 
increasing  the  length  of  attendance. 


SCHOOLS  IN   GERjMANY  25 

In  July,  1907,  a  school  was  opened  at 
Elberfeld,  and  since  that  time  additional 
schools  have  been  established  at  Liibeck, 
Dortmund,  and  Blickow-in-der-Mark. 
Berlin  has  voted  $75,000  for  beginning 
work  on  an  extensive  scale,  and  such  other 
large  cities  as  Solingen,  Cologne,  and  Aix 
are  considering  plans  for  beginning  work. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  in  a  few  years' 
time  the  majority  of  the  large  industrial 
towns  will  be  provided  with  schools  of  this 
new  type. 

In  Germany,  the  open-air-recovery  school 
has  now  passed  the  experimental  stage 
and  become  an  integral  part  of  the  ele- 
mentary school  system.  In  general  the 
school  at  Charlottenburg  is  being  taken  as 
a  model  on  which  the  other  schools  are 
patterned.  In  all  cases  the  principal  char- 
acteristics are  open-air  treatment,  plenty  of 
good  food,  warm  clothing,  strict  cleanliness, 
and  expert  medical  and  dental  attention. 

The  keynote  of  the  school  work  is  con- 
stant change  from  work  to  play,  reading, 
singing,  and  rest,  together  with  constant 
stimulation  of  interest. 


OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS  IN  ENGLAND 


CHAPTER  III 

OPEN-AIR    SCHOOLS    IN    ENGLAND 

THE  first  open-air  school  in  England 
was  established  by  the  London  County 
Council  in  July,  1907,  at  Bostall  Wood, 
Plumstead.  This  action  was  taken  follow- 
ing a  visit  of  the  municipal  authorities  to 
the  famous  school  of  Charlottenburg  in 
Germany.  It  was  this  visit  which  resulted 
in  the  publication  of  the  report  on  the 
German  schools  to  which  reference  has 
been  made  in  the  opening  paragraph  of 
the  preceding  chapter,  and  it  is  from  the 
section  of  the  same  publication  dealing 
with  the  results  of  the  first  English  open- 
air  school  that  the  following  description 
is  taken. 

The  object  of  the  school  at  Bostall 
Wood,  like  that  of  its  predecessors, 
was  twofold,  first,  to  benefit  physically 
children  found  to  be  in  such  poor  health 

29 


30  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

that  they  could  not  profit  fully  by  the 
instruction  given  in  ordinary  day  schools; 
and  secondly,  to  give  such  children  special 
physical  treatment  in  such  a  way  as  to 
prevent  any  educational  loss.  The  children 
for  whom  the  school  was  designed  and  who 
were  actually  chosen  to  attend  it  were 
unable  to  keep  pace  with  the  other  children 
in  school,  usually  attended  irregularly,  and 
were  incapable  of  continued  mental  or 
physical  exertion. 

It  was  thought  that  by  the  alternations  of 
mental  work,  rest,  and  organized  play  the 
children  would  not  fall  back  in  their  school 
work  and  would  make  decided  physical 
gains.  This  hope  with  respect  to  formal 
class  instruction  was  based  on  the  fact  that 
there  would  be  an  opportunity  in  this  school 
to  have  much  smaller  classes  than  would  be 
the  rule  in  the  city  schools,  and  that  instruc- 
tion would  be  along  more  practical  lines 
and  much  more  individual  in  character. 

The  grounds  in  which  the  school  was 
carried  on  were  on  a  well-wooded  enclosure 
of  about  twenty  acres.  A  turfed  space 
about  seventy  yards  in  diameter,  almost  in 


SCHOOLS  IN  ENGLAND  31 

the  centre  of  the  wood,  was  used  for  the 
school  itself.  This  clearing  was  surrounded 
by  a  single  row  of  benches  and  there  were 
two  large  sheds  open  at  one  side.  These 
were  used  for  teaching  purposes  and  for 
meals  in  wet  weather.  Both  instruction 
and  meals  were  given  outside  of  the  sheds 
in  fine  weather. 

A  meeting  of  the  head  masters  and  head 
mistresses  of  fifty-six  London  schools  was 
held  at  Bostall  Wood  early  in  July.  The 
scheme  for  the  proposed  school  was  ex- 
plained, and  they  were  told  that  the  number 
of  children  admitted  would  be  limited  to 
one  hundred.  In  view  of  the  smallness  of 
the  number  each  head  master  or  head 
mistress  was  asked  to  nominate  only  the 
children  most  needing  treatment. 

Two  hundred  seventy-two  children  were 
proposed  by  the  school  principals  and 
were  examined  by  the  school  physicians. 
Only  those  cases  likely  to  benefit  by  attend- 
ance at  the  open-air  school  were  passed. 
Children  suffering  from  incurable  organic 
disease  were  eliminated,  and  in  general 
those  admitted  were  debilitated  and  anae- 


32  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

mic  children  suffering  from  conditions  of 
crowded  city  life.  The  children  were  of 
the  type  familiar  to  those  who  have  much 
contact  with  city  schools  and  congested 
districts.  They  were  thin,  pinched,  pale 
and  wasted,  and  showed  in  every  case 
signs  of  physical  enfeeblement.  The  chil- 
dren who  were  rejected  were  either  too 
good  or  too  bad.  In  all,  those  selected 
numbered  one  hundred  forty-nine,  although 
the  greatest  number  on  the  roll  at  any  one 
time  was  one  hundred  eight,  and  the  average 
was  a  little  under  one  hundred. 

The  school  was  kept  open  for  thirteen 
weeks.  The  work  of  the  school  began  at 
nine  in  the  morning  atid  continued  until  six 
in  the  afternoon  on  each  week-day  except 
Saturday,  when  there  was  a  half-day  session 
only.  Three  and  three-quarters  hours  per 
day  were  devoted  to  school  work.  The 
other  five  and  a  quarter  hours  were  given 
over  to  eating,  sleeping,  games,  play,  and 
wandering  about  in  the  woods.  The  time 
devoted  to  formal  teaching  shows  that 
attendance  at  the  school  was  no  holiday  for 
either   teachers   or  pupils,  but  meant  real 


SCHOOLS   IN   ENGLAND  33 

hard  and  continued  work  for  both,  although 
under  conditions  which  prevented  hard 
work  from  becoming  drudgery  to  either. 
The  work  was  carried  on  upon  practical 
lines  as  far  as  possible,  resulting  in  a  con- 
dition impossible  to  reproduce  in  an 
ordinary  schoolroom.  The  tasks  necessary 
in  camp  life  afforded  valuable  training  to 
those  children  able  to  take  part. 

The  teaching  staff  consisted  of  a  head 
mistress  with  two  men  and  two  women 
assistants.  There  were  also  a  nurse  and  a 
caretaker  and  attendant,  while  the  ser- 
vices of  a  school  physician  were  regularly 
given.  The  teachers  were  engaged  for 
the  work  on  the  condition  that  they  should 
continue  to  receive  their  salaries  as  ordinary 
teachers,  together  with  reasonable  travelling 
expenses,  and  that  after  the  close  of  the 
open-air  school  they  should  have  their 
holidays  and  reoccupy  their  permanent 
positions. 

The  children  attending  the  school  were 
given  three  good  meals  a  day.  The  food 
was  prepared  at  a  cookery  centre  about 
one-fourth  of 'a  mile  from  the  school.     A 


34  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

cook  and  two  helpers  were  employed,  and 
the  food  was  taken  to  the  wood  in  order 
that  the  children  might  have  their  meals  in 
the  open  air.  Upon  arrival  at  nine  o'clock 
the  children  were  served  with  porridge, 
syrup,  and  milk.  At  twelve-thirty  they 
were  given  dinner,  which  was  the  heavy 
meal  of  the  day.  It  consisted  of  meat, 
and  occasionally  fish,  with  potatoes,  plenty 
of  green  vegetables,  pudding,  and  fruit.  At 
three-thirty  in  the  afternoon  biscuits  and 
fruit  were  served,  and  at  five-thirty  came 
tea,  so  called,  consisting  of  weak  tea  mostly 
milk,  bread  and  butter,  jam,  and  currant 
buns.  Care  was  taken  to  serve  all  of  the 
meals  under  the  best  possible  conditions. 
The  tables  were  decorated  with  flowers  and 
there  was  an  air  of  refinement  and  pleasure 
in  the  whole  proceeding. 

One  of  the  County  Council  medical 
inspectors  undertook  the  routine  examina- 
tion of  the  children  at  the  school.  Every 
child  was  examined  in  detail  within  four 
days  of  admission.  Conditions  found  were 
registered  upon  the  cards,  and  records  were 
made   at   frequent   subsequent  visits.     All 


SCHOOLS  IN  ENGLAND  35 

of  the  children  were  weighed  and  measured 
and  results  entered  upon  a  chart  on  the 
obverse  side  of  each  child's  card.  A  weekly 
record  of  the  weight  was  taken  by  the  nurse. 
As  it  is  impossible  to  estimate  anaemia 
accurately  from  mere  inspection,  each  child 
was  tested  twice  to  ascertain  the  percentage 
of  haemoglobin  present  in  the  blood.  The 
findings  gave  valuable  data  for  determining 
the  condition  of  children  entering  and  the 
improvement  resulting  from  open-air  life, 
feeding,  and  rest. 

A  special  feature  was  the  provision  for 
rest  or  sleep  that  the  children  were  required 
to  take  for  two  hours  in  the  afternoon  — 
from  one  to  three.  For  this  purpose  one 
hundred  steamer  chairs  and  blankets  were 
provided.  Twenty-five  mackintoshes  were 
also  supplied  for  the  use  of  the  children 
most  needing  them  on  wet  days.  It  was 
found  necessary  to  have  tents  for  the  use  of 
the  teachers,  and  two  of  the  bell  type  were 
hired  from  the  War  Office. 

Throuo^h  the  kindness  of  a  friend  who 
was  interested  in  the  work,  a  donkey  and 
cart  were  loaned  for  the  use  of  the  children. 


86  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

This  contributed  much  to  their  enjoyment 
and  was  found  useful  for  taking  the  weakest 
of  the  children  from  the  wood  to  the  car 
line  at  the  end  of  the  day  when  some  were 
too  tired  to  make  walking  enjoyable. 

Experience  showed  that  it  would  be 
beneficial  to  have  sail-cloth  covers  for  the 
sides  of  the  sheds  in  wet  weather.  It  was 
discovered,  too,  that,  while  the  steamer 
chairs  were  very  satisfactory  for  the  children 
to  rest  and  sleep  in,  they  were  not  at  all 
satisfactory  for  study  purposes. 

The  expense  of  conducting  the  school 
for  thirteen  wrecks  was  met  by  an  appro- 
priation of  $2,000  from  the  Government, 
by  contributions  from  friends  of  the  work, 
and  by  payments  made  by  the  parents  of 
the  children  partially  to  defray  the  expenses 
of  the  work.  To  keep  about  one  hundred 
children  in  school  for  a  little  over  three 
months  cost  a  little  less  than  $3,000,  or, 
roughly  speaking,  $10  per  month  per  child. 

As  to  results,  there  can  be  no  question 
that  a  notable  success  was  achieved  in  the 
face  of  numerous  diflSculties.  Every  child 
attending  was  benefited  physically  by  the 


SIATENORMALSCHOOL, 

SCHOOLS  IN  ENGLAND  37 

experience.  The  general  improvement  was 
great  and  in  some  instances  remarkable. 
The  general  effect  of  the  open-air  life  upon 
the  children  was  easily  discernible  in  their 
improved  colour  and  animated  demeanour. 
They  were  brighter  and  more  full  of  spirits  at 
the  end  of  the  school  term  than  at  the  begin- 
ning. They  moved  more  briskly  and  their 
intellects  were  keener.  Physical  improve- 
ment was  shown  by  greater  control  over  mus- 
cular and  nervous  movements,  and  the  power 
of  increased  physical  and  mental  effort. 
The  increase  of  voice  volume  was  most 
marked  and  significant.  In  a  number  of 
cases  the  eyesight  of  the  children  improved 
notably. 

Increased  resourcefulness  was  shown. 
Two  of  the  boys  painted  one  of  the  sheds 
in  a  very  creditable  manner,  and  most  of 
them  developed  handiness  at  various  man- 
ual tasks.  When  one  of  the  cookery  assist- 
ants left  through  illness,  the  children  took 
up  the  work,  and  all  of  the  necessary  laundry 
work,  washing  of  table-cloths,  etc.,  was 
done  by  the  children  after  the  first  week. 

The  average  increase  in  weight  was  six 


38  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

and  a  half  pounds  per  child  for  the  entire 
period,  which  is  equal  to  a  gain  of  one-half 
a  pound  per  week  per  child.  This  gain 
was  most  noticeable  during  the  latter  part 
of  the  time.  During  the  last  four  weeks 
the  children  averaged  a  gain  of  one  pound 
each  week  per  child.  The  greatest  increase 
was  nearly  fourteen  pounds. 

The  children  not  only  profited  by  their 
school  work,  but  they  loved  their  school. 
Although  the  opening  hour  was  nine  a.m., 
many  of  those  who  lived  within  walking 
distance  arrived  as  early  as  seven  o'clock, 
and  stayed  as  late  as  they  were  allowed  to. 
^  In  1908  the  Bostall  Wood  site  was  given 
up,  and  this  school  transferred  to  a  much 
better  site  on  Shooters  Hill,  Woolwich. 
The  government  grant  was  increased  from 
$2,000  to  $10,000.  Two  new  schools  were 
opened,  one  at  Horniman  Park,  and  the 
other  at  Kentish  Town.  Each  school  pro- 
vided for  seventy-five  children  in  three 
classes.  The  staff  in  each  case  consisted 
of  a  head  teacher,  three  assistants,  nurse, 
cook,  helper,  and  school-keeper. 

Dr.  Frederick  Rose,  adviser  of  the  Lon- 


« 


!/2 


3 


SCHOOLS  IN  ENGLAND  39 

don  County  Council  and  one  of  the  most 
active  advocates  of  open-air  schools,  has 
gathered  data  from  which  he  estimates 
that  there  are  between  thirty-five  and  forty 
thousand  children  in  London  in  such  poor 
physical  condition  that  they  cannot  attend 
ordinary  school  without  injury,  but  who 
may  greatly  profit  from  being  sent  to  open- 
air  schools. 

The  example  set  by  London  was  followed 
in  1908  by  Halifax  and  Bradford.  In  both 
of  these  cities  open-air  schools  were  opened 
in  untenanted  estates,  where  the  mansions 
and  outbuildings  were  utilized  for  school 
purposes.  The  Halifax  school  reports  that 
the  gain  of  the  children  in  weight  was  from 
one  to  eight  pounds,  the  average  being  three 
and  a  half  pounds.  Marked  improvement 
was  also  noted  in  behaviour  and  studies. 

The  Bradford  school  was  opened  on 
August  31,  1908,  and  remained  open  for 
nine  weeks,  closing  for  the  season  on  Octo- 
ber 30th.  A  very  good  account  of  the 
work  of  the  school  and  its  results  is  con- 
tained in  a  special  report  published  by  the 
Education  Committee  of  Bradford  in  1908. 


40  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

The  situation  chosen  was  almost  ideal. 
The  school  was  situated  in  a  five-acre  field 
almost  five  hundred  feet  above  sea-level. 
The  school  was  backed  by  an  extensive 
wood  which  spread  itself  around  three 
sides  of  the  site.  The  school  building 
consisted  of  two  classrooms  facing  the  south- 
east and  opening  on  to  a  veranda  in  such 
a  way  that  the  veranda  and  the  classrooms 
were  practically  one. 

The  children  were  thirty-nine  in  number. 
Most  of  them  were  described  as  *'very 
poorly  developed,"  "delicate,"  "neglected- 
looking,"  "anaemic,"  and  "scrofulous." 
The  seriousness  of  their  physical  defective- 
ness and  generally  debilitated  condition  is 
shown  by  the  following  table,  which  gives 
the  physical  defects  found  when  the  children 
were  examined : 

Phthisis     (consumption    of 

lungs) present  in  2 

Tuberculous  peritonitis       .  «  «  j 

Tuberculous  scars  on  neck  "  "  2 

Bronchitis «  <«  2 

Adenoids «<  «  »j^ 

Otorrhoea  (ear  discharge)    .  "  "  2 


SCHOOLS  IN  ENGLAND 


41 


Rickets          

Anaemia 

present 

in  5 
"     18 

Enlarged    submaxillary 
glands 

(( 

"     28 

Eczema 

t( 

"       2 

Blepharitis          .... 
Keratitis 

it 

"  2 
"       1 

The  children  gathered  each  morning 
in  the  centre  of  the  city  and  left  at  half- 
past  eight  for  the  school,  arriving  shortly 
after  nine.  They  returned  home  each  even- 
ing at  six-thirty.  The  following  time-table 
shows  the  general  programme  for  the  day: 


9   A.M. 

Breakfast 

9:45  to  10:45. 
10:45  toll    . 

Ordinary  school  work 
Play 

11  to  12 
12:30       .      . 

Ordinary  school  work 
Dinner 

1  to  2  P.M.     . 

Rest 

2  to  3       .      . 

3  to  4:30 

Play 

School  work,   outdoor   les- 

5.00   .      .      . 

sons,  e.g.,  nature  study, 
geography 
Tea 

5:30  to  6       . 

Play 

Three  meals   a'  day  were  given,  as   the 
physician  in  charge  did  not  approve  of  the 


42  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

practice  common  in  the  open-air  schools  of 
Germany  of  supplying  food  more  frequently. 
For  breakfast  the  children  had  porridge, 
milk,  bread  and  butter.  The  dinners  varied 
from  day  to  day.  In  general  the  plan  was 
to  give  soup,  meat,  vegetables,  and  pudding. 
The  evening  meal  consisted  of  milk  and 
bread  with  butter  or  jam. 

As  will  be  seen  from  the  programme,  an 
hour  was  given  each  day  for  absolute  rest 
of  all  the  children.  For  this  purpose 
steamer  chairs  were  provided  and  were  so 
constructed  that  the  children  were  able 
to  lie  in  a  much  more  recumbent  position 
than  is  possible  in  most  steamer  chairs. 

Each  child  was  bathed  weekly,  and  it  was 
considered  that  baths  constituted  a  very  im- 
portant part  of  the  treatment  of  the  children. 

School  work  was  carried  on  in  the  open  air 
and  gave  very  satisfactory  results. 

The  children  gained  weight  in  a  very 
satisfactory  manner.  At  the  end  of  the  first 
month  the  average  gain  was  two  and  a  half 
pounds,  or  approximately  as  much  as  the 
children  would  have  gained  in  six  months 
under  ordinary  conditions. 


Open-air  classroom,  Bradford,  England 


The  afternoon  rest  at  Bostall  Wood,  England 


Main  building,  Bnidt'ord,  sliuwini;-  ccn  cicd  way  and  porcli 

classroom.     The  construction  of  the  entire  plant 

is  notably  solid  and  appropriate 


General  view  of  Thacklev  Open-air  School, 
Bradford,  England 


OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS  IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES 


CHAPTER  IV 

OPEN-AIR   SCHOOLS   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

FROM  the  inception  of  the  open-air- 
school  movement  in  America,  it  has 
been  everywhere  intimately  connected  with 
the  work  and  propaganda  of  the  various 
anti-tuberculosis  organizations.  For  this 
reason,  detailed  information  about  the 
various  schools  is  mostly  to  be  found  in 
the  publications  of  these  associations  rather 
than  in  the  official  publications  of  the 
boards  of  education. 

This  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  the 
following  descriptions  of  the  Providence 
and  Boston  schools  are  largely  taken  from 
a  booklet  entitled  "Outdoor  Schools," 
issued  in  1909  by  the  Boston  Association 
for  the  Relief  and  Control  of  Tuberculosis, 
and  that  much  of  the  information  on  the 
Chicago  school  is  taken  from  a  pamphlet 
entitled  "  Chicago's  First  Open- Air  School," 

45 


46  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

also  issued  in  1909  by  the  Chicago  Tuber- 
culosis Institute.  In  the  cases  of  all  of 
these  cities,  mention  of  the  work  of  the  new 
schools  has  been  made  in  the  official  reports 
of  the  educational  authorities,  but  these 
reports  have  been  much  briefer  and  less 
detailed  than  those  issued  by  the  anti- 
tuberculosis forces. 

PROVIDENCE,    RHODE    ISLAND 

The  credit  and  honour  of  establishing  the 
first  open-air  school  in  the  United  States 
belong  to  the  city  of  Providence,  Rhode 
Island,  where  the  work  was  begun  on 
January  27,  1908.  The  location  was  a 
brick  schoolhouse  centrally  located  in  the 
city  and  not  then  occupied.  A  room 
on  the  second  floor  w^as  remodelled  by  the 
removal  of  part  of  the  southerly  wall, 
thus  practically  converting  the  four- 
sided  schoolroom  into  one  of  three  sides, 
leaving  the  fourth  side  open.  For  the 
brick  wall  thus  removed,  windows  w^ere 
substituted.  These  windows  extend  from 
near  the   floor  to  the  ceiling,   with    hinges 


SCHOOLS  IN  THE   UNITED  STATES    47 

at  the  top  and  with  pulleys  arranged  so 
that  the  lower  ends  can  be  raised  to  the 
ceiling. 

The  desks  of  the  children  are  placed  in 
front  of  the  open  windows,  the  pupils  facing 
the  teacher,  whose  desk  is  in  the  opposite 
corner  of  the  room.  The  children  thus 
receive  the  fresh  air  at  their  backs,  and 
get  the  light  over  their  shoulders.  The 
movable  desks  of  the  children  occupy 
half  of  the  room. 

In  the  other  half  of  the  room  there  are 
tw^o  stoves  —  a  large,  old-fashioned  cylinder 
stove  for  heating  purposes,  and  a  modern 
kitchen  range  for  cooking.  If  the  day  is 
cold  enough,  the  children  upon  their  arrival 
go  to  the  side  of  the  room  and  get  their 
blanket  bags  in  which  they  sit  at  their  desks. 
By  putting  their  feet  and  legs  in  these  bags 
and  keeping  on  their  outdoor  clothing,  they 
are  comfortable  even  in  the  coldest  weather. 
When  necessary,  they  have  in  addition 
soapstone  foot-warmers.  The  heat  from 
the  big  stove  tempers  the  air  so  that  the  tem- 
perature rarely  falls-  to  the  freezing  point. 
Besides   the   sitting-out   bags   the   children 


48  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

are  furnished  with  low  felt  shoes  which  they 
exchange  for  their  own  leather  shoes  should 
these  latter  become  damp  on  the  way  to 
school. 

The  school  w^as  started  as  an  ungraded 
one,  with  ten  pupils,  and  the  number  was 
later  increased  to  twenty-five. 

Practically  all  of  the  children  have  been 
selected  by  the  visiting  nurse  of  the  local 
League  for  the  Suppression  of  Tubercu- 
losis, from  homes  visited  by  herself  and  the 
other  tuberculosis  nurses.  In  a  few  in- 
stances children  with  moderately  active 
lesions  have  been  accepted,  but  for  the  most 
part  they  are  children  who  have  been 
exposed  to  tuberculosis,  and  who  are  be- 
lieved to  be  infected,  but  who  have  no  active 
lesions. 

During  the  school  year,  from  September, 
1908,  to  June,  1909,  twenty-eight  children 
were  enrolled.  The  cases  were  classified 
as  follows: 

Bone  cases 4 

Gland  cases 4 

Chest  cases 19 

Non-tuberculous     ........  1 


Letting  the  sunshine  in.     Exterior,  Providence 


Letting  tlie  sunshine  in.     Interior.  Providence 


The  heating  and  t  ookiiig  plant  in  the  Providence  school 


SCHOOLS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES    49 

Fifteen  cases  had  reacted  positively  to  the 
tuberculin  test.  No  open  cases  were  ac- 
cepted, nor  any  cases  running  a  constant 
temperature  above  normal. 
"  The  children  arrive  at  the  school  at  nine 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  have  a  recess 
at  ten-thirty,  when  they  are  given  hot  soup. 
At  twelve  o'clock  they  all  take  seats  around 
tables  and  eat  lunch.  This  consists  of  a 
hot  pudding,  such  as  tapioca  or  rice,  served 
with  cream,  and  hot  chocolate  or  cocoa 
made  entirely  with  milk.  In  addition, 
many  of  the  children  bring  potatoes  or  bits 
of  steak  or  chops,  which  are  also  cooked 
and  added  to  the  lunch.  The  cooking  is  all 
done  by  the  teacher. 

Before  eating,  each  child  must  thoroughly 
scrub  his  hands,  wash  his  face,  comb  his 
hair,  and  after  eating  clean  his  teeth.  Each 
child  is  taught  the  necessity  of  having  an 
individual  drinking-cup  and  tooth-brush. 

Details  of  the  children  wash  the  dishes 
each  week  and  take  turns  in  setting  the 
table  and  in  serving.  Those  who  are  not 
thus  engaged  go  out  into  the  yard  and  play 
until  the  school  reassembles  at  one  o'clock. 


50  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

At  two-thirty  o'clock  school  is  dismissed  for 
the  day.  Pupils  who  have  come  from  a 
distance  are  provided  with  car  tickets 
through  the  League  for  the  Suppression  of 
Tuberculosis.  Some  receive  tickets  for 
travelling  both  ways,  and  some  for  one  way 
only,  depending  upon  the  need  and  strength 
of  the  child. 

During  the  school  day  some  light  gym- 
nastic exercises  are  given,  including  wand 
drills,  and  the  children  are  taught  proper 
methods  of  breathing. 

In  the  spring  the  children  have  a  garden 
in  which  they  themselves  work  under  the 
supervision  of  a  man  employed  for  this 
purpose  in  connection  with  the  other  public 
schools. 

The  Providence  open-air  school  is  a  part 
of  the  general  school  department  of  the  city. 
It  is  located  in  a  public-school  building  and 
the  school  supplies  are  furnished  and  the 
salary  of  the  teacher  paid  by  the  School 
Committee.  The  League  for  the  Sup- 
pression of  Tuberculosis  defrays  the  expense 
for  food  and  the  carfares.  The  children 
are  under  the  constant    observation  of  a 


SCHOOLS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES    51 

woman  doctor  who  is  active  in  the  work  of 
the  League,  and  is  also  one  of  the  regular 
medical  inspectors  of  the  city  schools. 

The  school  has  been  a  thorough  success 
from  the  start.  Almost  without  exception 
the  children  have  benefited  greatly  from  the 
open-air  treatment.  The  report  of  the  first 
entire  school  year  stated  that  all  of  the  chil- 
dren except  one  showed  marked  improve- 
ment. There  was  an  average  gain  in  weight 
of  five  pounds,  the  highest  gain  being  four- 
teen pounds  by  a  girl  ten  years  of  age,  and 
the  smallest  gain  for  a  pupil  attending  the 
whole  year,  being  three  pounds.  Moreover, 
there  were  gains  in  alertness,  truthfulness, 
etc.,  that  cannot  be  measured  by  figures. 
A  number  of  the  children,  as  their  physical 
condition  improved,  have  returned  to  the 
regular  schools,  and  have  been  well  up  in 
their  school  work  instead  of  being  back- 
ward, as  they  would  have  been  had  they 
remained  in  the  regular  schools. 

BOSTON 

On  the  sixteenth  of  July,  1908,  the  Boston 
Association  for  the  Relief  and  Control  of 


52  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

Tuberculosis  opened  a  school  of  outdoor  life 
at  Parker  Hill,  Roxbury.  The  equipment 
consisted  of  a  lean-to  used  as  a  kitchen, 
toilet  rooms  with  shower  baths,  and  a  large 
tent  used  as  a  dining  room  and  as  a  shelter 
in  stormy  weather.  Three  meals  a  day 
were  served.  The  children  spent  their  time 
caring  for  their  vegetable  and  flower  gar- 
dens, assisting  with  the  housework,  resting, 
and  playing.  No  formal  instruction  was 
attempted.  It  was  simply  a  day  camp  for 
tuberculous  children. 

The  results  were  so  satisfactory  that  the 
Association  decided  to  ask  the  Boston 
School  Committee  to  cooperate  with  them 
and  establish  an  outdoor  school.  This  was 
readily  agreed  to,  and  the  Public  School 
Committee  supplied  the  teacher,  desks, 
books,  etc.,  while  the  Association  under- 
took to  supply  the  necessary  clothes,  food, 
nurse,  attendants,  home  instruction  and 
care,  and  the  medical  service. 

The  school  was  held  in  the  tent  up  to 
January  14,  1909.  After  that  date  it  was 
transferred  to  Franklin  Park.  The  loca- 
tion was  a  large  building  originally  erected 


!♦■■         r. 


o 

a, 

"3 
O 


O 


-5 


S 


SCHOOLS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES    53 

for  a  refectory.  Upon  the  roof  of  this 
building  the  city  and  the  Association  erected 
an  outdoor  schoolroom.  In  the  room  there 
were  twenty  adjustable  desks  and  seats 
besides  the  teacher's  desk.  The  building 
was  thirty  feet  long,  twenty  feet  wide,  and 
fifteen  feet  high.  The  roof  was  covered 
with  rubberoid,  and  on  the  four  sides  were 
canvas  curtains,  which  could  be  lowered  in 
stormy  weather. 

Inside  of  the  building  there  were  a  kitchen 
and  dining  room,  toilet  rooms,  rest  rooms, 
and  an  emergency  schoolroom. 

The  children  were  provided  with  reclin- 
ing chairs  and  blankets,  overshoes,  over- 
coats, sitting-out  bags,  and  individual  cups 
and  tooth-brushes.  All  of  these  articles 
were  numbered  and  remained  the  property 
of  the  children  while  they  were  in  the  school. 
If  the  children's  outer  clothing  became 
damp  on  the  way  to  school  it  was  replaced 
during  school  hours  by  those  belonging  to 
the  school. 

The  children  arrived  at  eight-thirty  and 
had  breakfast.  Lessons  began  immediately 
afterward.     Details  of  the  children  cleared 


54  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

the  tables,  washed  and  dried  the  dishes. 
The  time  between  breakfast  and  dinner  was 
devoted  to  regular  grade  work  divided  into 
twenty-minute  periods.  Dinner  was  served 
at  twelve-thirty,  and  the  children  helped 
to  set  the  table  and  serve  the  food.  After 
dinner  there  was  a  rest  period  for  one  hour, 
and  school  work  was  then  resumed.  At 
four-thirty  a  light  supper  was  served,  and  at 
five  the  children  returned  home. 

Cleanliness  was  insisted  upon,  and  the 
children  were  required  to  wash  their  hands 
and  faces  before  each  meal  and  brush  their 
teeth  afterward. 

The  children  were  weighed  and  had  their 
temperatures  taken  every  day.  The  Asso- 
ciation nurse  took  them  to  the  dental  clinic 
to  have  their  teeth  put  in  order,  to  the  eye 
and  ear  infirmary  to  get  glasses  for  those  who 
needed  them,  to  other  hospitals  as  needed, 
and  made  provision  in  settlement  houses  or 
public  baths  for  bathing  at  least  once  a  week. 

The  school  was  kept  open  on  Saturdays 
and  during  the  holidays  under  the  super- 
vision of  a  kindergarten  teacher  supplied 
by  the  Association. 


o 
PS 


C 


SCHOOLS  IN  THE   UNITED  STATES    55 

All  of  the  children  in  the  Boston  school 
had  originally  shown  physical  signs  of  weak- 
ness in  the  lungs,  but  no  distinct  or  marked 
open  cases  were  admitted. 

The  children  who  were  able  to  do  so 
brought  ten  cents  each  day  to  help  defray 
the  cost  of  the  food.  In  the  cases  where  the 
family  w^as  too  poor  to  do  this  the  money 
was  supplied  by  some  charity. 

\Miile  the  combined  public  and  private 
support  had  in  the  main  proved  thoroughly 
satisfactory,  it  seemed  best  for  many  reasons 
to  reorganize  the  school  so  that  it  would 
be  entirely  under  municipal  authority. 
This  has  accordingly  been  done,  and  at  the 
present  time  the  school  is  maintained  by 
the  Consumptives'  Hospital  Department  of 
the  city  and  the  School  Committee  together. 
The  Hospital  Department  furnishes  trans- 
portation, food,  etc.,  while  the  School  Com- 
mittee elects  the  teachers,  pays  their  salaries, 
und  furnishes  school  supplies,  books,  desks, 
etc. 

The  children  are  selected  by  the  school 
nurses.  Each  child  is  examined  at  the 
out-patients'    department    of    the    Boston 


56  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

Consumptives'  Hospital,  and  is  admitted 
to  the  school  only  upon  the  evidence  of 
tuberculosis. 

Since  its  reorganization  the  school  has 
been  enlarged  and  at  present  (June,  1910) 
there  are  some  110  children  enrolled  and 
five  teachers  are  employed.  The  school  is 
no  longer  an  experiment;  it  is  a  demon- 
strated success. 

The  school  in  Franklin  Park  has  proved  so 
successful  and  attracted  so  much  favourable 
comment  that  the  Boston  School  Committee 
requested  its  special  advisory  committee  on 
school  hygiene  to  report  on  the  advisability 
of  establishing  open-air  rooms  generally, 
the  type  of  such  rooms  and  proper  number 
of  children  for  whom  they  would  be  desir- 
able. It  was  requested  that  the  following 
points  be  covered : 

1.  The  method  of  selecting  children  need- 
ing to  be  placed  in  such  rooms. 

2.  The  symptoms  of  such  need  that 
should  be  especially  called  to  the  attention  of 
the  teaching  force. 

3.  The  sort  of  rooms  that  should  be  used 
for  this  purpose. 


SCHOOLS  IN  TIIE  UNITED  STATES    57 

4.  Whether  or  not  the  windows  of  such 
rooms  should  be  open  all  the  time,  and,  if 
not,  what  exceptions  should  be  made. 

5.  What  special  clothing,  if  any,  should 
be  provided  for  children  placed  in  these 
rooms. 

6.  Whether  or  not  there  are  teachers 
whose  physical  condition  would  be  benefited 
by  assignment  to  such  rooms. 

7.  Whether  or  not  it  would  be  desirable 
to  have  teachers  and  school  nurses  make 
special  inquiry  into  the  home  conditions  of 
children  needing  such  treatment. 

The  advisory  committee  reported  that 
such  "health-rooms"  should  not  be  con- 
fused with  present  provisions  for  the 
mentally  deficient  or  the  tuberculous  (by 
no  means  generally  established)  and  that 
a  sharp  distinction  should  be  maintained 
between  them.  It  felt  that  the  "health- 
rooms"  should  be  limited  to  those  physically 
debilitated.  Its  recommendations,  in  brief, 
were  as  follows: 

The  advisory  committee  is  unanimously 
of  the  opinion  that  it  is  desirable  to  establish 
open-air  rooms  in  school  buildings  for  those 


58  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

children  who  are  physically  below  normal 
in  development. 

That  in  the  establishment  of  such  open- 
air  rooms,  sunlight,  preferably  direct  sun- 
shine, as  well  as  fresh  open  air,  is  necessary. 

That  in  the  assignment  of  children  to 
these  special  rooms,  the  medical  inspectors, 
the  school  nurses,  and  the  teachers  should 
select  those  who  are  anaemic,  who  are 
undersized  and  below  the  normal  weight 
for  their  height,  those  showing  evidence 
of  glandular  enlargement,  and  those  who 
return  to  school  after  a  long  convalescence 
from  illness. 

In  this  connection  the  advisory  committee 
wishes  to  emphasize  the  great  value  of 
weighing  and  measuring  the  school  children, 
as  this  will  furnish  one  of  the  most  trust- 
worthy guides  to  the  selection  of  those  who 
are  physically  below  normal. 

That  in  the  present  school  buildings,  at 
least  in  the  overcrowded  sections  of  the  city, 
rooms  suitable  for  the  purpose  of  these 
classes  should  be  located  in  the  upper  stories 
of  the  building  with  a  southern  exposure, 
in  order  to  furnish  the  necessary  maximum 
of  sunlight  without  which  any  room  of  this 
type  must  be  uncomfortable,  cheerless,  and 
lacking  in  a  most  essential  quality. 

In   buildings   where   the   roof   offers   an 


The  ferrj'-boat  Southfield  utilized  for  an    open-air  school 
in  New  York  City 


The  rest  hour  on  the  Southfield,  New  York  City 


SCHOOLS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES    5f) 

opportunity  for  outdoor  use,  shacks  and 
other  provisions  should  be  established  to 
carry  out  the  purpose  of  these  recommenda- 
tions. The  committee  does  not  enter  here 
into  the  details  of  this  utilization  of  the 
roofs  of  school  buildings,  because  it  under- 
stands that  a  report  dealing  in  a  special 
manner  with  this  phase  of  the  problem 
is  to  form  a  separate  communication  from 
the  advisory  committee  to  the  school  com- 
mittee at  an  early  date. 

The  committee  strongly  recommends  that 
in  all  future  school  buildings  a  room  es- 
pecially adapted  for  the  purpose  herein  out- 
lined shall  be  included  in  the  plans  and 
accepted  by  the  school  committee.  Further 
details  on  this  recommendation  are  also 
to  form  a  part  of  the  committee's  special 
report. 

In  special  rooms  designated  as  health- 
rooms  to  be  established  in  buildings  now 
in  use,  arrangements  should  be  made  for 
the  widest  use  of  open  windows,  in  order 
that  the  maximum  amount  of  fresh  air  may 
find  access  to  every  part  of  such  rooms. 

That  suitable  protection  for  the  feet  and 
legs  is  necessary  in  aU  open-air  schoolrooms. 
A  sort  of  sleeping-bag,  so  called,  is  the  most 
practical. 

The  committee   believes   that   there   are 


60  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

undoubtedly  teachers  whose  physical  con- 
dition would  be  benefited  by  assignment 
to  such  rooms. 

That  in  the  carrying  out  of  the  health 
measures  herein  outlined,  the  services  of 
the  school  nurses  are  most  valuable  and 
would  increase  greatly  in  the  homes  the 
efficiency  of  the  work  undertaken  in  the 
schoolrooms  for  the  health  of  the  children. 

It  will  be  noted  that  these  open-air  rooms 
are  not  to  be  for  tuberculous  children,  but 
rather  for  those  suffering  from  anaemia 
and  malnutrition  and  those  who  are  con- 
valescing from  recent  illnesses.  The  candi- 
dates for  these  classes  are  selected  by  the 
room  teachers  and  nurses  and  submitted 
to  the  medical  inspector  for  final  decision. 
There  are  in  the  public  schools  of  Boston 
90,000  children.  The  first  selection  of 
pupils  for  the  open-air  classes  took  place 
in  the  early  part  of  the  school  year  1909-10 
when  5,043  children,  or  about  5J  per  cent, 
of  the  entire  membership,  were  chosen  by 
the  teachers  and  nurses  as  requiring  open-air 
treatment.  \Mien  these  children  were  re- 
examined   by    the    school    physicians    the 


SCHOOLS  IN  THE   UNITED  STATES    61 

decision  was  indorsed  in  the  cases  of  4,489 
of  them,  or  almost  5  per  cent,  of  the  entire 
membership. 

These  figures  are  especially  interesting,  for 
they  are  unique.  They  seem  to  indicate 
that  in  large  cities  about  five  per  cent,  of 
the  school  children  are  in  such  debilitated 
condition  physically  as  to  need  such  treat- 
ment as  that  afforded  by  special  schools 
of  the  open-air  type. 

NEW  YORK   CITY 

The  first  open-air  school  to  be  established 
in  New  York  City  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Department  of  Education  was  started  in  the 
outdoor  camp  for  tuberculous  patients 
maintained  by  Bellevue  Hospital  on  the 
ferry-boat  Southfield.  There  were  among 
the  patients  a  large  number  of  children  who 
were  receiving  open-air  treatment  on  the 
ferry-boat.  These  children  one  day  banded 
together  and  informed  the  doctor  that  they 
wanted  to  have  a  teacher  and  attend  school. 

When  this  action  was  reported  to  the 
Board  of  Education,  it  was  felt  that  so  un- 


62  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

usual  a  plea  should  be  given  a  prompt  and 
favourable  response,  and  in  December, 
1908,  the  school  on  the  ferry-boat  was 
officially  made  an  annex  of  Public  School 
Number  14. 

Except  for  its  unusual  location  the  school 
on  the  ferry-boat  does  not  diifer  greatly 
from  the  other  open-air  schools  which  have 
been  described.  The  teacher  is  paid  and 
the  school  supplies  are  furnished  by  the 
Board  of  Education.  The  children  are 
fed  and  necessary  clothing  is  provided  by 
the  hospital  authorities.  The  school  is,  of 
necessity,  an  ungraded  one,  and  the  number 
of  children  taught  by  one  teacher  is  kept 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  thirty. 

So  successful  has  the  school  on  the  South- 
field  proved  that  four  more  open-air  schools 
have  been  established  —  three  on  the  ferry- 
boats Westfield,  Middletown,  and  Sus- 
quehanna, and  one  on  the  roof  of  the 
Vanderbilt  Clinic,  at  Sixtieth  Street.  Offi- 
cially, these  open-air  schools  are  all  consid- 
ered to  be  annexes  of  regular  public  schools 
in  the  vicinity. 

On  October  29,  1909,  the  Board  of  Es- 


SCHOOLS  IN  THE   UNITED  STATES    63 

timate  and  Apportionment  granted  the  sum 
of  $6,500  to  the  Board  of  Education  for  the 
purpose  of  remodelling  rooms  in  some  of 
the  school  buildings  for  use  by  open-air 
classes.  On  December  22,  1909,  Dr.  Wil- 
liam H.  Maxwell,  Superintendent  of  Schools, 
called  a  conference  of  medical  and  school 
authorities  to  decide  how  the  rooms  should 
be  remodelled  to  fit  them  for  their  new  use, 
what  furniture  and  equipment  should  be 
supplied,  and  how  children  for  the  new 
classes  should  be  chosen. 

As  a  result  of  this  conference  it  was 
decided  that  the  maximum  number  of  chil- 
dren who  should  be  admitted  to  any  one 
open-air  class  should  be  limited  to  twenty- 
five.  The  children  are  to  be  chosen  by  the 
director  of  the  tuberculosis  clinic  nearest 
the  school  and  by  the  school  principal.  No 
child  is  to  be  assigned  to  the  open-air  class 
until  the  permission  of  the  parents  has  been 
secured  in  writing.  Children  are  to  be 
discharged  from  open-air  classes  by  the 
admitting  physician  on'  the  recommenda- 
tion of  the  principal.  Children  moving 
from  one    district  to  another  are  to  be  fol- 


64  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

lowed  up  and  taken  care  of  in  the  new  dis- 
trict. ISo  rule  was  adopted  defining  the 
exact  physical  condition  in  which  a  child 
must  be  in  order  to  be  considered  a  proper 
subject  for  open-air  treatment.  It  was 
decided  that  each  case  shall  be  considered 
separately,  and  that  the  only  definite  rule 
to  be  observed  is  that  no  open  cases  of  tuber- 
culosis shall  be  received  in  these  classes. 

It  was  agreed  at  the  conference  that  the 
intakes  of  the  regular  ventilation  system 
shall  be  cut  off,  and  hand  control  of  tem- 
perature prevail,  and  that,  further,  the  mini- 
mum temperature  allowed  in  the  room  shall 
be  50  degrees  Fahrenheit.  Every  room  is 
to  be  provided  with  twenty  movable  and 
adjustable  desks  and  chairs,  and  the  same 
number  of  regular  chairs,  and  the  windows 
are  to  be  provided  with  Venetian  blinds. 
The  rooms  used  for  open-air  classes  are, 
whenever  possible,  to  be  located  on  the 
third  floor  of  the  building,  in  order  that 
they  may  be  above  the  dust  level  of  the 
street. 

In  these  open-air  rooms  the  teachers, 
school  supplies,  clothing,  robes,  caps,  foot- 


April,  1910,  New  York  established  its  first  open-air  class 
in  a  public  school  buildiuf^  at  P.  S.  '■21,  Maiihattan.  Out- 
door classes  are  held  on  the  sheltered  roof,  while  the  open 
windows  of  the  classroom  mav  be  seen  on  the  left 


The  classroom  tent  of  the  first  Chicago  school 


Tent  interior,  Cliicago 


SCHOOLS  IN  THE   UNITED   STATES    65 

warmers,  scales,  and  other  equipment  are 
to  be  provided  by  the  Board  of  Education, 
while  the  food  is  to  be  supplied  by  the  Com- 
mittee on  the  Prevention  of  Tuberculosis 
of  the  Charity  Organization  Society. 

The  first  of  these  open-air  classes  was 
established  in  April,  1910,  in  School  Number 
21,  at  Mott  and  Elizabeth  Streets.  The 
organization  of  these  open-air  classes  has 
awakened  great  popular  interest  in  New 
York  City,  and  it  is  probably  a  direct  result 
of  this  interest  that  in  April,  1910,  Park 
Commissioner  Stover  announced  that  he  had 
decided  to  grant  special  privileges  which 
would  permit  children  of  the  kindergarten 
classes  of  the  public  schools  to  pursue  their 
studies  in  the  open  air  during  the  pleasant 
weather  in  Central  Park  and  the  other 
parks  of  Manhattan. 

CHICAGO 

Chicago's  first  outdoor  school  for  tuber- 
culous children  was  made  possible  through 
the  joint  cooperation  of  the  Board  of 
Education  and  the   Chicago  Tuberculosis 


66  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

Institute.  The  school  was  opened  during 
the  first  week  of  August,  1909,  on  the 
grounds  of  one  of  the  public  schools.  The 
buildings,  equipment  and  teaching  staff 
were  furnished  by  the  Board  of  Education, 
while  the  selection  of  the  children,  food 
supply,  cook,  nurse,  and  medical  service 
were  assumed  by  the  Tuberculosis  Institute. 
A  large  shelter  tent  and  thirty  reclining 
chairs  were  secured  for  outdoor  use,  and  a 
range,  cooking  utensils,  table-ware,  kitchen 
and  dining-room  tables,  and  icebox  were 
installed  in  the  basement  of  the  school  build- 
ing. The  principal  and  two  teachers  were 
supplied  by  the  Board  of  Education. 

The  Tuberculosis  Institute  placed  one 
of  its  nurses  on  half-time  attendance  at  the 
school  to  watch  the  temperature,  weight, 
pulses,  and  general  condition  of  the  pupils. 
Of  the  thirty  children  chosen  for  the  experi- 
ment, seventeen  had  pulmonary  tuberculo- 
sis in  its  first  stages,  two  had  tuberculous 
glands,  and  eleven  were  pronounced  pre- 
tuberculous.  None  had  passed  to  the 
"open"  infection  stage,  but  two-thirds  of 
them   showed   a   temperature   range   from 


SCHOOLS   IN  THE   UNITED  STATES    67 

99  to  100.2  on  admittance.  The  school 
was  open  for  one  month,  and  during  that 
time  the  daily  programme  was  similar  to 
those  already  described  in  the  cases  of  out- 
door schools  in  other  cities.  The  children 
received  plenty  of  fresh  air,  good  food, 
rest,  and  common-sense  school  work. 

The  results  of  this  short  experiment  were 
thoroughly  satisfactory.  The  children 
made  marked  gain  in  weight,  and  practically 
all  showed  normal  temperature.  The  gen- 
eral condition  was  greatly  improved. 

The  experiment  attracted  a  great  deal  of 
attention  and  discussion  in  the  city,  and  there 
were  many  who  thought  that  while  it  was 
all  very  well  as  a  warm-weather  enterprise 
it  could  never  be  conducted  during  the 
colder  months.  It  seemed  to  those  who 
had  the  interests  of  the  new  school  at  heart 
that  it  was  very  desirable  to  convince  these 
doubters  that  open-air  schools  could  be 
successfully  conducted  all  the  year  round. 
This  was  made  possible  by  a  grant  made 
by  the  trustees  of  the  Elizabeth  McCormick 
Memorial  Fund  to  the  United  Charities. 

Again  in  cooperation  with  the  Board  of 


68  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

Education  the  new  school  was  started  in 
the  fall  of  1909  on  the  roof  of  the  Mary 
Crane  Nursery  Building.  This  measures 
about  40  by  70  feet.  A  portion  of  this 
place  measuring  about  30  by  50  feet  has 
been  enclosed  by  a  fence  made  of  wire 
netting,  and  in  the  enclosure  there  has  been 
erected  a  sort  of  permanent  tent  made  of 
asbestos  board  so  that  it  is  fireproof  and 
can  withstand  wind  and  storm.  The  win- 
dows about  the  sides  lift,  so  that  there  is  an 
open  zone  around  the  tent.  In  fair  weather 
the  children  take  their  rest  hour  in  the 
open.  Meals  are  served  in  the  dining  room 
two  floors  below,  and  the  daily  bath  is  taken 
in  bathrooms  in  the  building  proper. 

This  was  probably  the  only  school  in 
the  city  of  Chicago  where  the  boys  and 
girls  refused  to  take  a  vacation  during  the 
last  Christmas  holidays.  It  is  reported 
that  they  all  came  back  asking  that  the 
school  go  on  during  the  vacation  time,  and 
their  request  was  granted. 

In  Chicago  the  experiment  of  the  open- 
air  school  has  resulted  in  the  development 
of  still  another  type  of  education  in  the  open 


A  classroom  is  used  as  a  diniiig'-nioin  ;il  Rochester 


Handwork  is  a  pronuiient  icaturc  in  the    Ivdclicster  school 


SCHOOLS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES    69 

air.  The  principal  who  had  charge  of  the 
open-air  school  which  was  maintained  dur- 
ing the  summer  of  1909  continued  experi- 
menting in  his  own  building  after  the  regular 
school  year  opened.  Beginning  in  the  early 
fall  he  regularly  left  the  windows  of  two 
schoolrooms  wide  open  and  continued  the 
work  with  a  much  lower  temperature  than 
that  commonly  maintained  in  schoolhouses. 
These  open-air  schoolrooms  are  not  de- 
signed for  tuberculous  children  or  for  any 
other  class.  The  experiment  was  based 
on  the  feeling  that  what  is  good  for  the 
debilitated  and  unsuccessful  might  reason- 
ably be  supposed  to  benefit  bright  and 
normal  pupils.  When  necessary,  the  chil- 
dren in  these  fresh-air  rooms  retain  their 
outdoor  wraps.  The  temperature  is  not 
allowed  to  drop  to  the  freezing  point,  but 
it  is  kept  much  lower  than  that  of  the  other 
rooms.  The  regular  school  seats  and  desks 
have  been  replaced  by  chairs  and  tables, 
and  the  children  are  .encouraged  to  take 
much  more  exercise  in  the  shape  of  play 
than  is  permitted  by  the  traditional  school 
regime. 


70  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

So  far  the  results  of  this  experiment  have 
been  encouraging.  A  physical  examination 
of  the  pupils  was  held  after  eight  weeks 
of  fresh-air  instruction.  The  test  was  made 
on  the  proposition  that  the  child  with  a 
stopped  or  running  nose  is  handicapped 
in  his  efforts  to  learn.  Among  the  ninety 
pupils  in  the  two  rooms  two  were  found 
with  running  noses.  In  the  next  two  rooms 
warmed  in  the  usual  manner,  there  were 
found  forty  cases  of  nasal  discharge.  The 
evidence  in  favour  of  the  open-air  treatment 
could  scarcely  be  more  striking. 

HARTFORD,  CONNECTICUT 

In  the  summer  of  1909  the  Hartford 
Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Tuberculosis 
established  a  camp  and  an  outdoor  school 
in  one  of  the  city  parks.  Forty-one  children 
were  admitted  during  the  summer.  They 
were  mostly  frail  and  ansemic  and  weighed 
on  the  average  eleven  pounds  below  the 
normal  weight  for  their  age.  The  children 
who  remained  in  the  camp  nine  weeks  or 
over   gained   on   the    average    six    pounds 


SCHOOLS  IN  THE   UNITED   STATES    71 

during  that  time,  while  a  marked  improve- 
ment was  shown  in  the  condition  of  those 
w^ho  remained  for  a  shorter  period. 

In  view  of  the  favourable  results  obtained, 
the  city  granted  an  appropriation  to  support 
the  work,  and  in  the  first  week  of  January, 
1910,  the  open-air  school  held  its  first  session 
in  a  tent  near  a  leased  building  used  for 
evening  and  vacation  schools.  The  school 
is  supported  by  the  city  school  department 
and  the  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Tuber- 
culosis in  cooperation.  The  city  pays  for 
instruction  and  equipment,  and  the  Society 
provides  warm  clothing  and  the  necessary 
meals. 

The  school  has  an  inexpensive  and  excel- 
lent plant.  It  has  a  house  for  indoor  sleep- 
ing in  case  of  too  severe  weather,  and  a  large 
army  tent  with  desks  on  its  board  floor  as 
its  schoolroom.  The  enrolment  is  between 
thirty  and  forty,  and  there  is  a  head  teacher 
and  an  assistant  teacher. 

In  the  first  ten  weeks  the  school  accom- 
plished some  splendid Tesults.  The  average 
gain  in  weight  was  five  pounds.  The  gain 
in  disposition  toward  study  and  play  was 


72  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

notable   and   the   children   easily   kept   up 
with  their  regular  school  classes. 

OTHER    CITIES 

At  least  one  more  open-air  school  has  been 
established  by  a  department  of  education. 
This  school  was  opened  in  the  city  of 
Rochester,  New  York,  in  October,  1909. 
There  is  so  far  little  available  information 
concerning  this  school. 

There  is  at  least  one  open-air  school 
being  supported  entirely  from  private  funds. 
This  is  located  in  Pittsburgh  and  it  was 
started  in  February,  1909,  by  the  Civic 
Club  of  that  city.  The  school  is  located 
on  one  of  the  porches  of  the  Pittsburgh 
Sanatorium. 

y 


RESULTS 


CHAPTER  V 


RESULTS 


FROM  a  physical  point  of  view,  the 
testimony  as  to  the  results  of  open- 
air  schools  is  all  on  one  side.  From 
Germany,  England  and  America  come 
unqualified  endorsements  with  scarcely  a 
dissenting  note. 

The  report  of  the  work  in  the  Char- 
lottenburg  school  tells  us  that  the 
physical  results  were  decidedly  satisfac- 
tory. This  is  proved,  first,  by  the 
improved  general  appearance  of  the 
children,  and,  secondly,  by  the  results 
of  individual  physical  examinations.  After 
a  few  weeks  a  great  improvement  in  the 
general  condition  of  the  children  was 
manifested  with  regard  to  appetite,  atten- 
tion, general  temperament  and  appear- 
ance.    The  final   medical  examination   at 

75 


76  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

the  end  of  three  months  gave   the  follow- 
ing results: 


Aggravated  Unchanged 

Anaemia          .         .     1           9 

Improved 
11 

Cured 

13 

(34  children) 
Scrofulous  diseases  — 

8 

22 

8 

(38  children) 
Heart  diseases            — 

7 

7 

(14  children) 
Pulmonary  diseases    1 

(21  children)       — 
Total  (107  children)  2 

8 
32 

8 
48 

4 
25 

The  table  shows  that  among  one  hundred 
seven  cases  the  results  of  the  school  was  a 
decided  improvement  or  complete  cure  in 
seventy-three  cases. 

To  these  favourable  results  must  be  added 
the  increase  in  weight  shown  by  the  children. 
On  the  average  this  was  between  six  and 
seven  pounds  a  child,  or,  roughly,  about 
one-half  a  pound  per  week.  Many  chil- 
dren increased  by  eight  pounds,  and  eleven 
of  them  showed  increases  of  between  eleven 
and  eighteen  pounds. 

It  was  also  shown  that  the  children's 
powers    of    resistance    had    been    greatly 


RESULTS  77 

enhanced  by  their  life  in  the  open  air,  so 
that,  although  the  month  of  October  was 
exceptionally  cold  and  wet,  none  of  the 
children  suffered  from  colds  or  similar 
indispositions.  From  a  medical  point  of 
view  these  favourable  results  have  been 
attained  by  the  simplest  means;  namely, 
being  constantly  in  the  open  air,  the  action 
of  sunlight,  baths,  simple  but  regular  food, 
and  school  instruction  diminished  both 
in  the  number  of  hours  and  in  the  number 
of  pupils  to  a  teacher. 

The  testimony  from  the  other  German 
schools  is  similar  to  that  from  Charlotten- 
burg.  The  results  of  the  Mlilhausen  experi- 
ment have  been  very  satisfactory.  The 
children  have  increased  in  weight  and 
improved  in  strength,  energy,  and  mental 
alertness. 

The  first  reports  from  Mlinchen-GIadbach 
cover  only  the  short  period  of  two  months, 
but  even  this  short  session  worked  wonders 
with  the  children  as  regards  increase  in 
weight,  improved  appearance,  and  bodily 
and  mental  activity. 

It    has    already    been    stated    that    in 


78  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

establishing  the  school  at  Bostall  Wood 
the  London  County  Council  had  in  view 
two  objects:  first,  to  benefit  the  chil- 
dren physically,  and,  secondly,  to  prevent 
educational  loss  while  they  were  under- 
going special  treatment.  It  is  beyond  ques- 
tion that  the  school  attained  both  of  these 
objects.  Physical  improvement  was  shown 
by  their  greater  muscular  ability  and 
enhanced  physical  and  mental  endurance. 
During  the  thirteen  weeks  that  the  school 
was  in  session  the  children  gained  on  the 
average  six  and  a  half  pounds  apiece  in 
weight.  As  in  the  case  of  the  Charlotten- 
burg  work  this  is  equal  to  half  a  pound  per 
week  per  child.  The  greatest  increase 
was  nearly  fourteen  pounds.  In  the  case 
of  the  London  children  the  increase  was 
greatest  during  the  latter  part  of  the  time, 
averaging  during  the  last  four  weeks  nearly 
one  pound  per  week  per  child.  It  is  note- 
worthy that  both  in  the  Bostall  Wood  school 
and  the  one  at  Charlottenburg  the  increase 
in  weight  amounted  on  the  average  to  one 
half  a  pound  per  child  each  week,  although 
in  the  case  of  Charlottenburg  the  children 


RESULTS  79 

received  five  meals  a  day  and  did  much  less 
work  and  walking  than  did  the  London 
children. 

How  the  children  improved  in  weight  is 
impressively  shown  in  the  case  of  some  of 
the  individuals.  For  example,  Kathleen 
M  — ,  aged  eleven,  was  a  very  anaemic 
child.  When  she  was  admitted  to  the 
school  during  the  second  week  she  w^eighed 
a  little  less  than  sixty-eight  and  a  half 
pounds.  She  gained  weight  steadily  and 
rapidly  until  the  seventh  week,  when  she 
weighed  seventy-seven  pounds.  During  the 
eighth  week  she  was  absent  and  lost  nearly 
a  pound  in  weight.  Upon  returning  to 
School  she  immediately  began  to  regain  the 
lost  ground,  and  when  weighed  again  at  the 
end  of  the  tenth  week  had  attained  a  weight 
of  nearly  eighty  pounds.  The  history  of 
the  case  is  shown  in  the  diagram  in  which 
the  heavy  line  shows  the  increase  in  weight 
from  week  to  week.  The  falling  off  caused 
by  the  absence  during  the  eighth  week  is 
noticeable.  It  would  be  hard  to  get  more 
convincing  evidence  of  the  value  of  the 
outdoor  schools. 


80 


OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 


io 

79 

77 
76 

75 

73 
72 
71 

70 

,69 
6^ 

1  r  r  r  s 

1       2^its6       7<        qio 

J 

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/ 

/■■ 

/ 

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J 

/ 

r 

/ 

/ 

f 

/ 

/ 

/ 

/ 

/ 

^^^ 

Chart  I.  Variations  in  weight  of  Kathleen  M — ,  Bostall  Wood 
Open-air  School.  Note  decrease  during  eighth  week  when 
she  was  absent 


RESULTS 


81 


The  case  of  Kathleen  M —  was  by  no 
means  exceptional.  Many  of  the  other 
children  showed  similar  histories.     A  similar 


Lbs 

WEE  K  S 
-1         2         -^     k-         •?         6       7         i         9     10 

\ 

\ 

^3 

tf2 

39 

i 
\  ► 

\ 

1 

V 

r 

^ 

€-»- 

\ 

*** 

V 

f 

> 

/ 

_/ 

Chart  II.  Varirtions  in  weight  of  Arthur  W — ,  Bostall  Wood 
Open-air  School.  Note  decrease  during  sixth  week  when 
he  was  absent. 

chart  shows  how  Arthur  W —  increased 
rapidly  in  wefght  from  the  first  to  the  fifth 
week,  lost  severely  during  the  sixth  week. 


82'  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

^Yhen  he  was  absent,  and  upon  returning  to 
school  regained  much  of  the  lost  ground. 

Convincing  evidence  as  to  the  effect  of 
the  school  life  on  nutrition  is  furnished  by 
the  results  of  the  haemoglobin  test.  The 
red  colour  of  the  blood  is  due  to  the  presence 
in  the  red  blood  corpuscles  of  a  chemical 
substance  known  as  haemoglobin.  This 
substance  plays  an  important  part  in  carrying 
the  oxygen  from  the  air  in  the  lungs  to  all 
the  tissues  of  the  body,  and  the  proportion 
in  which  it  is  present  in  the  blood  is  a 
valuable  indicator  of  the  degree  of  ansemia 
present  and  the  condition  of  the  child's 
health. 

The  improvement  produced  in  this  respect 
is  most  interesting.  The  haemoglobin  test 
showed  the  percentage  among  the  boys 
on  admission  was  74.8,  the  normal  per- 
centage being  100.  Five  weeks  later  the 
percentage  among  the  same  boys  was  80.1, 
an  increase  of  5.3.  The  percentage  among 
the  girls  upon  admission  was  75.6.  Five 
weeks  later  it  was  81.2,  an  increase 
of    5.6. 

Results  in  the  Thackley  open-air  school 


RESULTS  83 

maintained  by  the  city  of  Bradford  for 
nine  weeks  during  the  fall  of  1908  are 
fully  as  convincing  and  consistent  as  those 
already  discussed.  The  report  of  the  school 
speaks  in  glowing  terms  of  the  improve- 
ment of  the  children  in  appearance,  expres- 
sion, and  alertness. 

A  summary  of  the  results  with  respect 
to  increase  in  weight,  haemoglobin  per- 
centage, and  chest  measurement  offers 
convincing  testimony  of  the  value  of  the 
work : 

BOYS 

Number 19 

Ages 7  to  11  years 

Average  age 8.7  years 

Average  weight  on  admis- 
sion          43.25  lbs. 

Average   weight   nine  weeks 

later 46.25  lbs. 

Average    increase      ...  3  lbs. 

Average  haemoglobin  per- 
centage  on   admission     .  78 

Average  haemoglobin  per- 
centage nine  weeks  later    .  88 

Average  increase  in  haemo- 
globin percentage       .      .  10 


84 


OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 


Average  chest  measurement 
at  full  inspiration  on  ad- 
mission         23.3  inches 

Average  chest  measurement 
at  full  inspiration  nine 
weeks  later        ....        24.3  inches 

Average    increase    in    chest 

measurement     ....  1  inch 


GIRLS 

Number     ......  21 

Ages 7  to  12  years 

Average  age 8.5  years 

Average  weight  on  admis- 
sion    44.5  lbs. 

Average  weight  nine  weeks 

later 50.2  lbs. 

Average  increase  .      .      .      .  5 . 7  lbs. 

Average     haemoglobin     per^ 

centage  on  admission    .      .  80 

Average  haemoglobin  per- 
centage nine  weeks  later    .  90 

Average  increase  in  haemo- 
globin   percentage       .      .  10 

Average  chest  measurement 
at  full  inspiration  on  ad- 
mission          23  inches 

Average  chest  measurement 
at  full  inspiration  nine 
weeks  later        ....  24  inches 


RESULTS  85 

Average    increase    in    chest 

measurement     ....  1  inch 

In  general  the  children  gained  weight 
very  rapidly  during  the  first  four  weeks 
and  then  somewhat  less  rapidly  during  the 
succeeding  five  weeks.  The  school  was 
closed  on  the  thirtieth  of  October.  The 
records  of  the  children  showed  that  in  the 
next  two  weeks  they  fell  off  sharply  in 
weight  and  then  started  slowly  to  gain  again. 
The  whole  story  is  shown  graphically  in  the 
following  chart  in  which  the  average  weekly 
gain  is  shown  by  the  heavy  black  line.  It 
will  be  noted  that  it  rises  steadily  and 
rapidly  during  the  month  of  September, 
continues  to  rise,  but  more  slowly,  during 
October,  and  then  falls  off  sharply  after 
the  school  is  closed. 

The  heavy  dotted  line  indicates  roughly 
the  approximate  average  increase  which 
takes  place  in  the  schools  of  Bradford  in 
the  case  of  similar  children  under  ordinary 
conditions.  The  notable  feature  is,  of 
course,  how  much  more  rapid  the  gain  is 
under  the  healthful  conditions  imposed  by 
the  outdoor  school. 


8G 


OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 


LAS 

3 
2 

1 

m, 

s« 

>pt^mbfl 

r 

Oetob< 

pr 

November 

/ 

C 

lOJ 

.01 

led 

\ 

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f 

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/ 

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V 

X 

^ 

/ 

/ 

^" 

^^ 

^' 

^^ 

i 

/ 

--^ 

-<• 

^ 

^  ' 

^^ ' 

Chart  III.  Showing  the  average  weekly  gain  or  loss  in  weight 
of  children  attending  the  Bradford  Open-air  School  in  1908.  The 
dotted  line  shows  the  average  increase  which  takes  place  in  the 
case  of  children  under  ordinary  conditions. 


RESULTS  87 

Turning  now  to  America  we  find  it  much 
more  difficult  to  secure  definite  accounts 
in  quantitative  terms  of  the  results  of  the 
outdoor  school  work.  In  general  the 
records  in  our  schools  have  not  been  so 
carefully  kept,  nor  are  they  so  full  in  scope, 
as  the  foreign  ones. 

In  Chicago  the  first  outdoor  school  was 
opened  for  tuberculous  children  on  August 
3,  1909,  and  was  kept  open  for  one  month. 
There  were  thirty  children  in  attendance, 
seventeen  of  whom  were  above  normal  age 
for  the  grades  they  were  in.  The  results 
of  this  short  experiment  were  as  follows : 

The  total  gain  in  weight  for  the  thirty 
children  was  one  hundred  thirteen  and  a 
half  pounds,  the  range  being  from  one  to 
seven  pounds. 

When  the  children  were  admitted  to  the 
school  twenty  of  them  showed  a  tem- 
perature ranging  from  99  to  100.2  degrees. 
On  discharge  only  two  showed  tempera- 
tures above  99  degrees,  while  all  the  rest 
were  practically  normal. 

The  general  condition  of  all  was 
improved. 


S8  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

Principal  William  E.  Watt  of  the  Graham 
School  has  the  following  to  say  about  the 
results  of  the  cold-air-room  experiment 
already  described: 

"The  children  are  delighted  to  breathe 
pure  air  all  day  in  school  and  out.  They 
are  not  compelled  to  stay  in  the  room,  but 
there  are  many  more  clamouring  to  get  in. 
It  has  been  a  most  successful  experiment. 
Pupils  have  been  cured  of  catarrh,  swollen 
glands  have  been  reduced  to  normal  size, 
and  tubercular  symptoms  have  disappeared. 
Their  resistance  to  disease  has  been  raised, 
and  they  are  much  more  healthy." 

One  most  impressive  set  of  definite  data 
has  been  gathered  from  the  record  cards 
of  the  children  in  the  Providence  school. 
This  school  was  opened  in  January,  1907^ 
and  individual  records  of  the  pupils  have 
been  kept  continuously  up  to  the  present 
time.  One  portion  of  these  records  con- 
sists of  the  results  of  the  haemoglobin 
tests.  How  these  have  fluctuated  for 
the  entire  class  for  a  period  of  a  year  and 
a  half  is  shown  graphically  in  the  following 
diagram : 


RESULTS 


89 


The  diagram  shows  that  when  the  school 
opened  in  January  the  haemoglobin  per- 
centage  was   a   little   less    than   74.     The 


62 
7^ 

1 

A 

\ 
I 

r 

) 

t 

j 

1 

•4 

I 

\ 

\ 
1 
1 

'  1 

/ 

/ 

1 

1 

4« 
O 

\ 

/ 

/ 

f 

1 

1 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 
\ 
\ 

/ 

/ 

r 

1 

1 

I 

/ 

i 

Chart  IV.  Haemoglobin  tests,  Providence  Open-air  School, 
1908-1909.     Average  for  class.     Note  falling  off  during  vacation. 

solid  line  shows  how  this  percentage  rose 
steadily  until  it  almost  reached  84  at  the 
close  of  the  school  year  in  June.     Then  the 


90  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

children  went  to  their  homes  for  the  long 
summer  vacation,  and  the  dotted  line  shows 
how  their  haemoglobin  percentage  fell  dur- 
ing that  time  until  it  almost  reached  the 
74-per-cent.  level  again.  When  the  open- 
air  classes  began  again  in  September  the 
hsemoglobin  percentage  began  to  rise,  nearly 
reaching  the  79-per-cent.  level  by  the  end  of 
January  and  climbing  almost  to  84  per  cent, 
by  the  close  of  the  year  in  June. 

These  results  are  not  entirely  definite  and 
trustworthy  for  the  reason  that  they  do  not 
show  conditions  among  exactly  the  same 
group  of  children  during  the  entire  period 
covered.  Some  of  the  original  children 
dropped  out  during  the  first  year,  and  their 
places  were  taken  by  other  children  who 
entered  later,  and  whose  records  are 
included  in  the  average  results  shown  in  the 
chart.  Nevertheless,  an  examination  of  the 
individual  records  shows  that  in  general  the 
averao:e  results  among-  the  same  individuals 
are  similar  to  the  results  for  the  entire  class 
as  shown  in  the  diagram.  The  record  is 
consistent  in  its  essential  agreement  with 
those    already    cited.     Physical    gains    are 


RESULTS  91 

shown  to  be  rapid  and  constant  while  the 
pupils  are  in  attendance.  Their  losses 
when  they  are  absent  are  immediate  and 
marked,  and  upon  returning  their  gains 
begin  at  once. 

In  an  account  of  the  Providence  out- 
door school  by  Walter  H.  Small,  then 
Superintendent  of  Schools  of  that  city, 
published  in  the  Journal  of  Outdoor  Life 
for  March,  1909,  the  results  are  summed  up 
in  the  following  concluding  paragraph: 

"More  visitors  have  called  upon  this 
school  than  any  other  in  the  city.  Begun 
as  an  experiment,  it  has  proved  its  worth 
and  is  not  now  experimental.  Arranged 
for  twenty  pupils,  it  contains  all  grades, 
from  the  beginning  to  the  highest  elemen- 
tary grade.  Not  all  grades  are  present  at 
once.  The  school  enrolment  is  varying 
and  the  work  is  necessarily  individual. 
Each  does  what  he  can;  he  is  not  urged; 
but  he  sits  in  the  sun,  keeps  healthfully 
busy,  drinks  in  fresh  air,  and  grows  stronger 
physically  and  more  alert  mentally.  To 
see  the  colour  come  into  the  cheeks  and  the 
sparkle  into  the  eye  and  to  see  the  ema- 
ciated form  fill  out  convinces  those  close 
to  the  work  that  it  pays  abundantly." 


92  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

In  the  school  maintained  for  tuberculous 
children  in  Franklin  Park  in  Boston  the 
medical  results  were  most  satisfactory.  Up 
to  June  14,  1909,  forty-one  children  had 
been  at  the  school  for  one  month  or  more. 
Twenty-three  of  them  had  had  their  tuber- 
cular processes  arrested  and  had  returned  to 
the  regular  public  schools,  and  in  each  case 
without  loss  in  their  school  work.  Of 
the  twenty-three  arrested  cases  all  except 
two  are  known  to  be  well  now  and 
present  no  physical  signs  in  the  lungs. 

From  an  educational  point  of  view  the 
results  have  also  been  most  satisfactory. 
The  children  became  more  alert  mentally 
and  showed  considerable  increase  in  atten- 
tion to  work.  They  improved  in  appear- 
ance, were  neater  and  cleaner,  had  better 
manners  and  were  more  orderly,  and  their 
parents  remarked  these  changes. 

Another  set  of  results  from  Boston  comes 
from  the  Prescott  School  where  an  open- 
air  class  numbering  about  twenty  was  con- 
ducted during  the  spring  months  of  1907. 
This  class  was  made  up  of  thin,  pale,  and 
anaemic    children    of    the  fourth  and    fifth 


Garden   work   wa.s   popular   at    Bo>lali    Wood 


:nr 


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P^ 


Halifax,  England.      'I'lic   cliildrfii    help   in   .such   tasks  as 
cleaning  cutlery 


RESULTS  93 

grades  who  were  members  of  overcrowded 
classes  and  had  been  repeatedly  absent. 
These  children  were  removed  from  the 
regular  classrooms  and  given  portable  desks 
in  a  corner  of  the  schoolyard. 

They  gained  rapidly  in  weight,  mental 
alertness,  and  physical  condition.  These 
gains  are  reflected  by  the  improvement  in 
attendance  which  was  brought  about  as  a 
result  of  the  open-air  regime.  During  the 
month  of  February  the  average  per  cent, 
of  attendance  among  these  children,  then 
members  of  the  regular  indoor  classes,  was 
71,  and  in  March  it  was  72.  During  the 
month  of  April  the  children  were  removed 
from  the  regular  classrooms  to  the  open-air 
class,  and  the  per  cent,  of  attendance  in- 
creased to  75.  In  the  month  of  May  it 
jumped  to  90,  and  reached  92  per  cent,  in 
June.  This  marked  improvement  follow- 
ing the  organization  of  the  open-air  class 
is  graphically  shown  in  the  diagram. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  results  of 
all  of  the  open-air  schools  has  been  the 
demonstration  of  the  fact  that  many  of 
the    ordinary    classroom    subjects    can    be 


94 


OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 


taught  more  efficiently  in  the  open  air. 
This  is  brought  about  through  intelligently- 
seizing    the    unique    opportunities    offered 


Attendance  in  Prescott  School,  Boston,  in  1907,  of  same  class  during 
two  and  a  half  months  indoors  and  two  and  a  half  months  outdoors. 


Indoors 


IZZI 


Outdoors 


by  the  immediate  environment  of  the  school 
as  working  material  for  imparting  knowl- 
edge.    For  example,  in  Charlottenburg  in 


RESULTS  95 

teaching  arithmetic  the  children  are  pro- 
vided first  of  all  with  tape  measures  and 
are  encouraged  to  use  them  as  much  as 
possible.  They  measure  the  ground  and 
various  objects,  count  the  trees,  calculate 
spaces,  etc.  Every  effort  is  made  to  avoid 
the  mere  manipulation  of  figures  and  to 
bring  the  arithmetical  instruction  in  touch 
with  actual   conditions  and  dimensions. 

The  teaching  of  geography  greatly  bene- 
fits by  outdoor  methods.  Relief  maps  are 
constructed  in  sand,  the  configuration  of 
the  surrounding  country  explained,  moun- 
tain ranges  made  to  scale,  and  almost  all 
geographical  definitions  suitably  illustrated. 
The  action  of  running  water  upon  river- 
banks,  the  carriage  of  suspended  mineral 
matter  by  rivers,  the  silting  up  of  river-beds, 
the  formation  of  deltas,  the  causes  of  floods, 
the  means  of  irrigation,  are  brought  home 
to  the  children's  minds  with  the  greatest 
ease. 

The  lives  of  plants,  animals,  and  insects 
are  shown  almost  from  birth  to  death,  and 
the  children  are  trained  to  study  and  observe 
but  not  to  destroy  harmless  animals  and 


96  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

insect  life.  The  decomposition  of  rocks 
and  the  formation  of  soils  are  studied  at 
first  hand.  In  connection  with  nature 
study  a  large  amount  of  weather  observa- 
tions and  study  of  the  heavens  are  also 
carried  on. 

The  children  are  taught  to  look  upon 
themselves  as  a  large  family  and  are  trained 
to  exercise  all  the  virtue^  necessary  for 
ordered  life  in  the  communities.  It  is 
impressed  upon  them  that  school  buildings 
and  grounds  have  been  loaned  to  them  for 
their  benefit  and  that  they  must  restore 
them  in  the  same  condition  that  they  found 
them  so  other  children  may  receive  the  same 
advantages. 


FEEDING 


CHAPTER  VI 

FEEDING 

THOSE  who  have  had  in  charge  the 
organization  and  administration  of 
open-air  schools  have  almost  without  excep- 
tion agreed  that  one  of  the  most  important 
factors  in  successful  work  of  this  type  is 
wholesome  and  adequate  feeding.  As  to 
just  how  this  feeding  shall  be  carried  out 
there  is  considerable  diversity  of  opinion 
and  practice. 

In  Germany  the  best  practice  sanctions 
frequent  feeding  amounting  almost  to  what 
is  termed  forced  feeding.  Five  meals  a 
day  are  regularly  given. 

The  daily  routine  in  Charlottenburg  is 
as  follows:  The  children  arrive  at  about  a 
quarter  to  eight  and  receive  a  bowl  of  soup 
and  a  slice  of  bread  and  butter.  Classes 
commence  at  eight  with  an  interval  of  five 
minutes  after  every  half-hour's  instruction. 

99 


100  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

At  ten  o'clock  the  children  receive  one  or  two 
glasses  of  milk  and  another  slice  of  bread  and 
butter.  Dinner  is  served  at  half-past  twelve 
and  consists  of  about  three  ounces  of  meat 
with  vegetables  and  soup.  After  dinner  the 
children  rest  or  sleep  for  two  hours.  At  four 
o'clock  milk,  rye  bread,  and  jam  are  given. 
The  last  meal  consists  of  soup  and  bread  and 
butter  and  is  given  at  a  quarter  to  seven  after 
which  the  children  return  home.  The  ex- 
penditure for  the  feeding  amounts  to  about 
twelve  cents  per  day  per  child.  Poor  chil- 
dren are  excused  from  paying,  and  the  others 
pay  in  full  or  in  part  according  to  the  circum- 
stances of  their  parents. 

At  Mulhausen  four  meals  a  day  are  pro- 
vided; the  hours  being  eight  and  ten-thirty 
A.M.  and  one  and  six  p.m. 

In  the  Gladbach  school  the  children  are 
given  breakfast,  lunch,  supper,  and  half  a 
pint  of  milk.  Lunch  consists  of  soup,  meat, 
and  two  vegetables.  The  expenditure  per 
day  per  child  amounts  to  about  fourteen 
cents.  The  food  is  supplied  from  a  neigh- 
bouring sanatorium,  which  makes  it  much 
cheaper  than  it  would  otherwise  be. 


o 

o 

-3 


-a 


be 


M 


FEEDING  101 

The  same  plan  is  followed  In  the  school 
at  Elberf eld,  where  the  food  is  supplied  from 
a  neighbouring  convalescent  home.  The 
children  receive  five  meals  a  day,  which 
include  one  quart  of  milk  per  child.  The 
expenditure  for  feeding  amounts  to  some- 
thing less  than  sixteen  cents  a  day  per 
child.  It  is  borne  partly  by  the  parents 
and  partly  by  the  charitable  organization 
which  man  ages  the  convalescent  home. 

When  the  first  English  school  was  opened 
at  Bostall  Wood  it  was  decided  that  the 
children  should  be  supplied  with  three  good 
meals  a  day.  The  food  was  prepared  at  a 
cookery  centre  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
from  the  Wood.  The  children  received 
breakfast  at  nine  a.m.  immediately  after 
arriving;  dinner  at  half-past  twelve;  bis- 
cuits and  fruit  at  three-thirty;  and  tea  at 
five-thirty.     The  dietary  was  as  follows : 

BREAKFAST   ON    ARRIVAL 

Oatmeal  porridge  (medium  Scotch  meal) 

Syrup 

Milk,  J  pint 


102  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

DINNER  AT  12  :30  P.M. 

Meat  (4  ozs.) ;  fish  occasionally 
Potatoes  (6  ozs.) 
Green  vegetables  in  quantity 
Pudding  (6  ozs.)  in  rotation: 
Suet  pudding  and  treacle 
Milk  pudding 

Stewed  fruit,  or  fruit  in  batter,  or  boiled 
rice 

3:30  P.M. 

Fruit  or  biscuit 

TEA,  4:45  TO  5:15  p.m. 

Weak  tea  (mostly  milk) 
Bread  and  butter 
Jam  or  syrup  twice  a  week 
Cake,  or  currant  bread  and  butter,  twice  a 
week 

The  good  conduct  of  the  children  at  meal- 
times was  particularly  noticeable.  Before 
the  close  of  the  term  they  acquired  a  taste 
for  good  food  and  such  diet  as  oatmeal 
porridge  and  green  vegetables,  which  they 
were  not  accustomed  to  and  refused  to  eat 
during  the  opening  days  of  the  experiment. 


FEEDING  103 

At  the  Thackley  school  at  Bradford  only 
three  meals  a  day  were  provided.  The 
physician  in  charge  did  not  approve  of  the 
German  practice  of  supplying  food  more 
frequently.  For  breakfast  at  nine  o'clock 
the  children  had  porridge,  syrup,  half  a 
pint  of  milk,  brown  or  white  bread  and 
butter.  The  first  morning  many  of  the 
children  refused  to  eat  the  porridge  or 
would  take  only  a  mouthful  or  two.  In  a 
few  mornings,  however,  it  was  enjoyed  by 
practically  all  of  them.  Dinner  came  at 
12:30  and  was  cooked  on  the  premises. 
The  menu  varied  from  day  to  day,  the  first 
and  second  courses  being  chosen  from 
among  the  following: 

First  Course  —  Scotch  barley  broth ;  to- 
mato soup;  meat  and  potato  hash;  Shep- 
herd's pie,  gravy  and  green  peas  (or 
carrots  and  turnips) ;  Yorkshire  pudding, 
with  gravy  and  green  peas ;  cottage  pie  (meat 
and  potato,  with  crust)  and  green  peas; 
stewed  beef,  with  onions,  carrots  and  tur- 
nips; stewed  fish,  parsley  sauce,  mashed 
potatoes  and  green  peas. 

Second  Course  —  Sultana  or  jam  roly- 
poly  pudding ;  fruit  tart ;  baked  currant  pud- 


104  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

ding  and  sweet  sauce;  baked  jam  roll; 
boiled  fruit  pudding  (plum  or  apple) ;  milk 
pudding  in  variety  with  stewed  fruit ;  boiled 
rice  and  sultanas ;  cornflour  blancmange. 

Tea  at  5  p.m.  consisted  of  milk  (^  pint) ; 
bread  (brown  or  white);  butter  or  jam; 
wholemeal  cake  occasionally. 

American  practice  up  to  the  present  time 
has  differed  little  from  that  of  the  English 
and  German  schools.  In  the  open-air 
school  maintained  in  Chicago  during  the 
summer  of  1909  the  children  reached  the 
school  at  8:30  a.m.  Their  first  duty  was 
to  give  their  faces  and  hands  a  thorough 
washing.  Breakfast  w^as  served  at  nine 
o'clock  in  the  school  basement.  This  con- 
sisted of  well-cooked  cereal  or  shredded 
wheat,  eggs  in  some  form,  bread,  butter, 
milk,  and  often  some  kind  of  fruit.  At  first 
liberal  amounts  of  cream  were  given  with  the 
breakfast  food,  but  experience  soon  showed 
that  too  much  cream  was  unpopular.  It 
was  a  new  article  of  diet  and  the  children 
did  not  like  it.  In  this  as  well  as  in  other 
articles  of  diet  it  was  found  that  the  simple 


FEEDING  105 

foods,  well  cooked  and  nutritious  such  as 
had  come  under  their  range  of  experience 
at  home,  were  far  more  acceptable  than  a 
more  elaborate  bill   of  fare. 

At  10:45  in  the  forenoon  refreshment  of 
milk  or  eggnog  was  served.  At  first  raw 
eggs  were  tried,  but  after  a  near-revolt  on 
the  part  of  the  children  various  devices 
were  practised  to  disguise  the  taste  of  the 

At  12:30  came  dinner,  which  was  the 
heavy  meal  of  the  day,  usually  consisting 
of  meat  or  fish,  potatoes  and  one  other 
vegetable  followed  by  pudding,  fruits, 
cookies  or  some  other  sweets. 

At  three  o'clock  came  the  mid-afternoon 
refreshment  of  milk  or  eggnog,  and  at  five 
o'clock  supper  was  served,  consisting  of 
bread  and  butter,  scrambled  eggs  or  some 
similar  food,  custards  or  stewed  fruit.  The 
cost  for  feeding,  including  three  meals  and 
two  refreshments  per  day,  was  just  under 
thirty  cents  per  day  per  child. 

At  the  Providence  school  no  attempt  at 
full  feeding  is  made.  The  children  arrive 
at  the  school  at  nine  in  the  morning  and 


106  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

the  session  closes  at  2:30  in  the  afternoon. 
At  10:30  they  have  a  recess  during  which 
they  are  given  hot  soup.  At  twelve  o'clock 
they  are  all  seated  about  tables,  eat  whatever 
lunch  they  have  brought  and  in  addition 
are  given  a  hot  pudding  such  as  tapioca 
or  rice  served  with  cream  and  hot  chocolate 
or  cocoa  made  with  milk.  The  menu  for 
one  week  was  as  follows: 

Monday  — 10:30,  beef  soup  with  rice. 
12:  pudding,  cream  of  wheat,  3  quarts  of 
milk,  6  eggs,  served  with  cream;  chocolate, 
all  milk. 

Tuesday — 10:30,  beef  soup  with  maca- 
roni. 12:  pudding,  tapioca,  2  quarts  of 
milk,  6  eggs,  whipped  cream;  chocolate, 
all  milk. 

Wednesday — 10:30,  tomato  bisque  soup. 
12:  rice  pudding,  3  quarts  milk,  6  eggs, 
served  with  cream;  chocolate,  all  milk. 

Thursday —  10:30,  beef  soup  with 
vegetables.  12:00,  baked  farina  pudding,  3 
quarts  of  milk,  6  eggs,  cream;  chocolate, 
all  milk. 

Friday — 10 :30,  pea  soup.  12 :00,  prune 
pudding,  3  quarts  milk,  6  eggs,  served  with 
cream;  cocoa,  all  milk. 


3 
O 


o 


u 


o 


FEEDING  107 

The  school  maintained  in  Boston  during 
1908-9  was  of  a  distinctly  different  type  from 
the  one  at  Providence.  Boston's  school 
was  for  tubercular  children.  They  were 
present  several  hours  longer  than  were  the 
Providence  children  and  a  much  more 
definite  attempt  was  made  to  supply  them 
with  complete  and  adequate  meals.  The 
daily  routine  with  respect  to  feeding  was  as 
follows:  The  children  arrived  at  the  school 
at  8:30  and  had  breakfast.  After  break- 
fast all  but  four  were  ready  to  begin  les- 
sons. These  four,  remaining  in  the  dining 
room,  cleared  the  tables,  washed  and  dried 
the  dishes,  etc.  At  12 :30  dinner  was  served, 
and  again  the  children  helped  to  set 
and  wait  on  the  table.  At  4:30  a  light 
supper  was  served,  and  at  five  o'clock 
the  children  returned  home.  Cleanliness 
was  insisted  upon,  and  one  of  the  rules 
of  the  school  was  that  faces  and  hands 
must  be  washed  before  and  teeth  brushed 
after  each  meal.  The  diet  was  a  simple 
one  and  so  planned  as  to  give  variety 
and  the  proper  amount  of  the  different 
food  constituents.     The  following  are  two 


108 


OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 


simple  menus  with  their  approximate  food 
value : 

BREAKFAST 

Cocoa,  bread  and  butter,  sliced  banana. 

LUNCHEON 

Stew  of  rice  and  mutton,  bread  and  butter, 
milk,  dessert,  figs. 


SUPPER 


Milk,  gingerbread. 


Amt. 
ozs. 

Proteid 

Fat 

Carbo- 
hydrate 

Calories 

Cocoa  (  2  cups  )    . 

18 

19.06 

23.42 

37.86 

451.17 

Bread     .... 

4 

10.5 

1.3 

59.7 

801. 

Butter     .... 

1 

.24 

28.7 

221. 

Banana  ( 1 )      .     . 

3-4 

.85 

.42 

15.2 

77.18 

Rice  and  mutton  . 

10 

46.8 

29.2 

37. 

619. 

Bread     .... 

2 

5.2 

.06 

29.8 

150. 

Figs  (3)      .     .     . 

2 

2.61 

.18 

45.11 

Milk  (  3  glasses  )  . 

26 

24.93 

30.22 

37.77 

532. 

Gingerbread     .     . 

2 

5.22 

5.73 

40.3 

235.6 

68 

115.41 

119.23 

302.74 

2589.95 

BREAKFAST 

Cocoa,  Graham  gems,  butter,  stewed  prunes. 

LUNCHEON 

Creamed    codfish,   mashed   potato,  bread, 
milk,  dates  and  nuts. 


Dinner  time  at  the  Franklin  Park  School,  Boston 


Lunch  hour  at  Hartford 


Dinner  hour  on  the  Southfield,  Xew  York  City 


FEEDING 


109 


SUPPER 

Milk,  crackers,  and  cream  cheese. 


Amt. 
ozs. 

Proteid 

Fat 

Carbo- 
hydrate 

Calories 

Cocoa  (  2  cups  )    . 

18 

19.06 

23.42 

37.86 

451.17 

Bread      .... 

2 

5.2 

.06 

25.8 

150. 

Butter     .... 

1 

.24 

23.7 

221. 

Graham  gems  .     . 

4 

7.5 

3. 

44. 

245.3 

(  Dry  )  prunes  .     . 

1 

.4 

17.05 

71.9 

Creamed  codfish  . 

4 

19. 

9. 

19.9 

265. 

Mashed  potato 

4 

3. 

5. 

18. 

125. 

Peanuts  in  shells  . 

H 

7. 

10.5 

6.7 

155. 

Dates  (6)    .     .     . 

u 

.31 

.8 

24.78 

111.4 

Crackers      .     .     . 

2 

4.64 

3.2 

33.8 

186.8 

Cheese    .... 

i 

4.22 

5.49 

.39 

69.9 

IVIilk  (  3  glasses  )  . 

26| 

24.93 

30.22 

37.77 

532. 

66 

95.50 

114.39 

270.05 

2584.47 

In  addition  to  the  meals  taken  at  the 
school,  the  children  have  milk  and  bread, 
or  cereal  and  milk,  or  sometimes  an  egg 
before  leaving  home  in  the  morning,  and 
again  a  light  meal  on  their  return  home 
at  night.  This  brings  the  total  fuel  value 
of  the  food  eaten  during  the  day  up  to  about 
3,000  calories,  which  is  probably  high  for 
a  normal  child,  but  not  for  these  tubercular 
children. 


COST 


CHAPTER  VII 

COST 

IT  IS  impossible  to  make  a  definite  gen- 
eral statement  as  to  the  cost  involved 
in  the  establishment  of  an  open-air  school 
because  so  much  depends  on  local  circum- 
stances. In  some  places  the  question  of  a 
site  may  be  a  somewhat  serious  one.  In 
England  and  Germany  it  is  felt  that  it  is 
almost  necessary  to  have  the  school  some 
distance  away  from  the  city  or  town  and 
yet  at  the  same  time  to  have  it  easily 
reached  by  electric-car  lines.  If  the  same 
practice  were  followed  in  this  country  it 
would  almost  invariably  involve  a  consider- 
able search  and  decided  expense.  It  must  be 
remembered,  moreover,  that,  whatever  the 
outlay  may  be,  it  is  always  in  addition  to  what 
is  already  being  spent  for  school  purposes, 
as  no  other  schools  or  classes  are  closed 
because  an  open-air  school   is  established. 

113 


114  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

The  cost  of  maintaining  the  school  as  com- 
pared with  the  cost  of  an  ordinary  school 
will  largely  depend  on  how  far  food,  cloth- 
ing and  carfare  are  provided  for  the  children. 
The  increased  cost  for  the  salaries  of  the 
teachers  may  easily  be  computed  in  any 
locality  on  the  basis  that  teachers  of  the 
very  highest  class  are  needed  and  that 
there  must  be  one  teacher  for  approximately 
every  twenty  children. 

The  other  increases  in  running  expenses 
will  be  largely  for  food  and  clothing.  The 
necessary  expenditure  for  clothing  will  vary 
according  to  the  suitability  and  amount 
of  clothing  the  children  bring  from  home, 
and  in  a  similar  way  the  cost  for  food  will 
largely  depend  on  how  great  a  deficiency  in 
the  home  supply  must  be  met.  No  general 
rules  can  be  laid  down  beyond  the  imperative 
one  that  it  is  absolutely  essential  that  the 
children  be  supplied  from  some  source  with 
an  abundance  of  suitable  clothing  and 
plenty  of  wholesome  food  of  the  right  kind. 

Probably  because  of  the  varying  factors 
which  enter  into  all  the  considerations  of  cost 
in  relation  to  the  new  schools  the  information 


COST  115 

as  to  cost  furnished  in  their  reports  is  mostly 
general  in  character.  This  will  be  seen  on 
examining  the  figures  published  in  the  report 
of  the  parent  school  in  Germany. 

The  Charlottenburg  experiment  was  car- 
ried on  for  three  months  and  began  with 
ninety-five  children,  a  number  which  was 
afterward  increased  to  one  hundred 
twenty.  The  following  table  gives  some 
details  of  the  total  expenditure  during 
this  time: 

Schoolrooms $2,430 

Open  shed 315 

Washing  and  bathing  room  .      .      .  218 

Offices 243 

Water  and  drainage 243 

Milk  and  vegetable  cellars    ...  73 

Wire  fence 131 

Internal  equipment  .....  1,215 

Educational  equipment  ....  291 

Provisions 1,336 

Additions  to  teachers'  salaries    .      .  Ill 

Doctor's  fee 73 

Two  cooks  and  two  scullery  maids  .  87 

Tramway  fares 82 

Total $6,848 


116  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

It  Is  to  be  noted  that  only  the  last  five 
items,  amounting  in  all  to  a  total  expendi- 
ture of  $1,689,  can  properly  be  considered 
running  expenses.  The  other  items  come 
under  the  head  of  permanent  investment. 
Another  point  which  must  not  be  over- 
looked is  that  the  salaries  of  the  teachers 
are  not  included.  The  cost  of  food 
amounted  to  about  twelve  cents  per  child 
per  day.  For  this  sum  five  meals  per  day 
were  provided. 

Turning  now  to  the  first  English  experi- 
ment at  Bostall  Wood  we  find  that 
the  school  took  care  of  an  average  of 
eighty  children  in  actual  attendance  for 
seventy-eight  days.  The  expenses  were  as 
follows : 

SCHOOL  EXPENSES 

Salaries  of  teachers  (one  principal  and 

four  teachers) $815 

Janitor 119 

Books,  etc.         79 

Furniture,  etc 348 

$1,361 


COST  117 

FEEDING 

Food $868 

Cook  and  helpers 95 

Fuel 9 

$972 

OTHER    EXPENSES 

Nurse $120 

Sanitary  arrangements      .      .      .      .  161 

Travelling  (children) 192 

Travelling  (teachers) 49 

Boxes  for  storing  school  property       .  62 

Miscellaneous 32 

$616 
Total  expenditure 2,949 

A  computation  based  on  the  above  figures 
shows  that  the  cost  of  food,  including  the 
expense  for  fuel  and  for  the  wages  of  the 
cook  and  helpers,  amounted  to  a  little  less 
than  sixteen  cents  per  day  for  each  child. 
For  this  sum  four  meals  a  day  were  pro- 
vided. 

Turning  now  to  America,  there  is  even 
less  definite  information  available.  The 
report  of  the  Boston  school  gives  the  infor- 


118  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

mation  that  the  cost  for  the  school  teachers 
and  the  school  equipment  is  about  the 
same  as  it  would  be  in  any  other  school. 
The  cost  of  the  raw  food  for  each  child  is 
about  twenty  cents  a  day,  and  the  cost 
of  preparing  and  serving  it  together  with 
all  of  the  other  expenses  included  beyond 
the  school  expenses  is  about  thirty  cents 
a  day.  It  is  stated  that  with  the  school 
running  on  a  larger  scale  these  figures 
could  be  reduced.  These  Boston  figures 
were  based  on  the  expenses  for  a  school  of 
about  forty  children. 

More  detailed  figures  are  available  in  the 
case  of  the  school  maintained  in  Chicago 
in  1909  by  the  Board  of  Education  and  the 
Chicago  Tuberculosis  Institute.  Here  thirty 
children  were  cared  for  for  one  month. 
The  cost  of  maintenance  of  this  school, 
is  given  as  follows: 

COST   OF   MAINTENANCE 

(Not  including  Teaching  Service  and 
Equipment) 

Transportation $46.30 

Cook  and  helper 30.90 


COST  119 

Half-time  salary  of  nurse      .  .      .     35.00 

Food  —  Bread,  crackers,  and 

cookies $15.35 

Milk  and  cream      .      .      .  68.90 

Butter  and  cheese   .      .      .  10.42 

Eggs 44.03 

Groceries 13.59 

Fruits  and  vegetables   .      .  22.91 

Meat,  poultry,  and  fish     .  14.25 

Ice 4.00 

Sweets .85 


194.30 

30  tooth-brushes  at  20  cents       .      .        6.00 
Miscellaneous  expenses         .      .      .       8.96 


Total  cost $321.46 


Cost  per  child  per  day; 

For  food]      o  °^?^  \        4.     r  29.4  cents 
(     2  reireshments   ) 

For  transportation        .      .      .7.0  cents 

For  service  and  other  expenses  12.3  cents 

Total 48.7  cents 

To  sum  up,  the  added  cost  of  maintaining 
an  open-air  school  will  depend  on  the  neces- 
sary local   expenditure   for  securing  quar- 


120  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

ters,  employing  unusually  capable  teachers 
in  the  ratio  of  one  teacher  for  every  twenty  or 
twenty-five  pupils,  and  supplying  necessary 
clothing  and  food  of  good  quality  but 
simple  character.  Indeed,  in  the  entire 
matter  of  equipping  an  open-air  school 
simplicity  should  be  the  keynote. 

This  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  the 
buildings  should  be  of  flimsy  temporary 
construction  or  lacking  convenience  or 
suitability.  Much  less  does  it  mean  that 
economy  of  a  parsimonious  sort  can  be  for 
a  moment  tolerated  in  supplying  necessary 
food  and  clothing.  It  does  mean  that  no 
allowance  whatever  should  be  made  for 
ostentatious  display  or  luxuries. 


CONSTRUCTION  AND  CLOTHING 


CHAPTER  VIII 

CONSTRUCTION  AND  CLOTHING 

PROBABLY  no  one  man  has  made  a 
more  thorough  technical  study  of 
the  construction  of  hospitals  and  sana- 
toria for  the  tubercular  than  has  Dr. 
Thomas  S.  Carrington,  Assistant  Sec- 
retary of  the  National  Association  for 
the  Study  and  Prevention  of  Tuber- 
culosis, and  Expert  on  Hospital  Con- 
struction in  the  New  York  State  De- 
partment of  Health.  It  is  because  his 
professional  equipment  enables  him  to 
speak  with  authority  that  the  material 
presented  in  this  chapter  has  been 
largely  taken  from  an  article  by  Dr. 
Carrington  entitled  "How  to  Build  and 
Equip  an  Outdoor  School,"  published  in 
the  Survey  for  April  23,  1910;  and  from 
other  information  furnished  through  his 
courtesy. 

123 


124  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 


CONSTRUCTION 

Open-air  schools,  as  we  find  them  in 
America,  may  be  divided  into  two  general 
classes.  In  the  first  of  these  we  may  include 
those  open-air  schools  which  are  carried  on 
in  buildings  exclusively  devoted  to  the  pur- 
pose. In  practice  these  buildings  are  gen- 
erally simple  and  often  temporary*-in  char- 
acter. Open-air  schools  of  the  second  type 
may  be  classed  under  the  heading,  "fresh- 
air  rooms."  These  are  schools  conducted 
in  the  rooms  of  school  buildings  which 
have  been  altered  to  suit  the  new  require- 
ments. 

Turning  to  the  schools  of  the  first  class, 
which  are  conducted  in  buildings  exclu- 
sively devoted  to  the  purpose,  we  find  them 
ranging  in  building  equipment  all  the  way 
from  the  comparatively  elaborate  plants 
found  in  the  forest  schools  of  Germany 
and  England  to  the  buildings  on  unoccupied 
country  estates  which  have  been  used  both 
abroad  and  in  this  country,  and  to  the 
extremely  simple  temporary  buildings  which 


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CONSTRUCTION  AND  CLOTHING  125 

have  been  erected  on  the  roofs  of  school 
and  other  buildings  in  Boston,  New  York, 
and  Chicago. 

These  small  buildings,  of  a  size  to 
accommodate  not  more  than  twenty-five 
or  thirty  pupils,  are  little  more  than  per- 
manent tents  built  partly  of  wood  and 
partly  of  other  materials.  The  following 
description  of  the  construction  of  a  New 
York  building  gives  details  which  may 
be  considered  typical: 

The  building  is  30  feet  long,  20  feet  wide, 
and  12  feet  high  at  the  highest  point  of  the 
roof  and  can  be  built  at  a  cost  of  about 
$500.  It  is  in  the  shape  of  a  rectangle 
with  a  flat  roof.  The  roof  is  supported  by 
4-x-4-inch  timber  posts  at  the  corners  and 
at  the  centre  of  the  end  walls.  These 
uprights  are  reenforced  by  2-x-4  joists  placed 
4  feet  apart  on  all  sides  of  the  building, 
while  the  roof  support  consists  of  a  3-x-6 
timber  girder  running  the  length  of  the 
room  and  supported  by  a  post  in  the  middle. 
The  roof  consists  of  tongued  and  grooved 
inch  boards  laid  on  rafters  and  covered 
with  rubberoid  roofing.     The  floor  is  made 


126  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

of  narrow  floor  boards  laid  on  2-x-4  supports 
and  covered  with  battleship  linoleum.  The 
four  sides  of  the  room  are  enclosed  by 
board  walls  up  to  a  height  of  3  feet  from 
the  floor.  Above  this  the  north  and  west 
sides  are  enclosed  by  alternating  panels 
of  narrow  boards  and  long  windows  hung 
from  the  ceiling. 

The  south  and  west  sides  are  open  above 
the  wainscoting,  but  protected  from  wind 
and  storms  by  canvas  curtains  on  rollers 
which  carry  them  entirely  out  of  the  way 
when  not  in  use. 

In  cities  where  the  wooden  construction 
is  forbidden  by  the  building  or  fire  regula- 
tions, asbestos  board  siding  may  be  sub- 
stituted for  wooden  siding.  This  construc- 
tion has  proved  successful  in  the  Chicago 
school.  Experience  shows  that  the  children 
can  comfortably  live  in  the  open  air  even 
at  very  low  temperatures  if  they  are  thor- 
oughly protected  from  the  wind. 

Even  such  simple  and  inexpensive  build- 
ings as  these  have  not  been  found  necessary 
in  all  cases.  In  Chicago,  Boston,  Hartford, 
and   Rochester   the   first   open-air    schools 


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CONSTRUCTION  AND  CLOTHING  127 

were  housed  in  tents,  and  this  practice  is 
still  maintained  in  the  Connecticut  city. 
There  is,  however,  an  unoccupied  dwelling- 
house  available  which  is  utilized  for  shelter 
during  very  inclement  weather.  The  kitch- 
en facilities  are  also  used  for  preparing 
the  food,  and  one  of  the  upper  rooms  with 
wide-open  windows  has  been  used  as  a 
sleeping  room  during  the  rest  hour  of  the 
children. 

It  would  seem  that  the  experience  of 
Hartford  in  utilizing  the  unoccupied 
dwelling-house  on  an  estate  provided  with 
ample  grounds  might  be  followed  in  many 
other  places  where  the  temporary  use  of 
the  property  might  be  available  without 
the  necessity  of  purchasing  it. 

Another  useful  lesson  in  constructive 
economy  is  to  be  found  in  what  New  York 
has  done  in  utilizing  abandoned  ferry-boats 
for  open-air  classes.  Perhaps  no  better 
illustration  can  be  found  of  putting  an 
apparently  useless  piece  of  property  to  a 
useful  service. 
/  The  second  class  of  open-air  schools 
^  consists  of  schools  conducted  in  what  we 


128  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

have  called  "fresh-air  rooms."  The  expe- 
dient of  remodelling  existing  schoolrooms 
so  that  they  will  serve  for  the  fresh-air 
classes  has  the  great  advantage  of  making 
it  possible  to  start  work  wherever  there  is 
a  room  available  in  one  of  the  public  school 
buildings.  The  experience  at  Providence 
shows  that  such  a  location  may  at  times 
be  found  in  school  buildings  which  have 
been  abandoned  by  the  regular  classes,  but 
may  be  remodelled  for  the  new  use  at  com- 
paratively slight  expense.  There  must  be 
in  many  cities  similar  old  school  buildings 
which  can  easily  be  utilized. 

The  best  way  to  fit  the  schoolroom  for 
the  new  use  seems  to  be  first  to  choose  a 
room  with  a  southern  exposure  and  then 
to  remove  the  outside  wall  on  that  side  so 
far  as  possible.  This  operation  converts 
the  four-sided  schoolroom  into  one  of  three 
sides.  The  fourth  side  is  then  filled  in  with 
long  windows  reaching  clear  to  the  floor 
and  hinged  at  the  top  and  provided  with 
pulleys  and  cords  so  that  they  may  be 
raised  against  the  ceiling  of  the  room  on 
the  inside. 


The  windows  in   the   Providence  school  are  hinged  at  the 

top  and  can  be  raised  against  the  ceiHng 

hy  cords  and  puUeyig 


CONSTRUCTION  AND  CLOTHING     129 

A  less  expensive  way  is  not  to  attempt  to 
remove  the  entire  wall,  but  simply  to  cut 
the  existing  windows  down  to  the  floor 
level  and  provide  the  openings  with  window 
sashes  hinged  from  the  top.  A  still  less 
expensive  expedient,  but  one  that  is  not  as 
satisfactory,  is  to  leave  the  window  openings 
as  they  are  and  simply  to  substitute  for  the 
present  sliding  sashes  full-length  hinged 
sashes. 

However  the  alterations  may  be  made, 
experience  shows  that  it  is  best  to  seat  the 
children  in  movable  chairs  so  placed  that 
the  children's  backs  shall  be  toward  the 
open  side  of  the  room. 

In  buildings  provided  with  mechanical 
heating  and  ventilating  systems  the  intakes 
are  cut  off  and  hand  regulations  substituted 
for  the  automatic  mechanism.  The  Provi- 
dence experience  shows  that  in  buildings 
where  no  heating  plant  is  in  operation  a 
satisfactory  substitute  may  be  provided  by 
installing  an  old-fashioned  heating  stove 
in  the  schoolroom.  The  consensus  of 
opinion  among  those  who  have  had  exper- 
ience with  the  new  schools  is  that  the  temper- 


130  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

ature  should  not  be  allowed  to  fall  much 
lower  than  forty  degrees  Fahrenheit  even 
in  the  coldest  weather. 

All  of  the  experiments  that  have  so  far  been 
conducted  show  that  the  changes  necessary 
to  convert  an  existing  schoolroom  into  a 
fresh-air  room  are  comparatively  simple 
and  inexpensive  in  either  old  or  new  build- 
ings. In  schools  in  course  of  construc- 
tion still  better  arrangements  can  be 
made,  and  fresh-air  rooms  with  two  or 
three  sides  open  to  the  weather  may  be 
constructed. 

CLOTHING 

There  is  unanimous  agreement  on  the 
proposition  that  if  children  are  to  bene- 
fit from  the  open-air  treatment  they  must 
be  well  fed  and  kept  warm.  Keeping  them 
warm  in  rooms  where  the  temperature  is 
frequently  low  can  only  be  accomplished 
by  providing  them  with  suflScient  clothing 
of  just  the  right  sort.  If  they  do  not  possess 
good  woollen  underwear  and  warm  well- 
fitting  outer  garments  these  must  be  supplied 


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CONSTRUCTION  AND  CLOTHING      131 

directly  by  the  school  or  indirectly  by  some 
charitable  agency. 

It  is  absolutely  essential  that  each  child  be 
provided  with  a  heavy  overcoat,  sitting-out 
bag,  two  blankets,  a  knitted  toboggan  cap, 
and  warm  gloves.  If  a  child  comes  to 
school  with  his  shoes  and  stockings  damp 
they  should  be  removed  and  others  belong- 
ing to  the  school  substituted.  In  the  Provi- 
dence school  low  felt  shoes  have  been  found 
most  satisfactory  for  such  use.  In  the 
school  now  maintained  on  the  roof  of 
the  Mary  Crane  Nursery  in  Chicago  the 
children  are  provided  with  Eskimo  suits 
which  have  proved  satisfactory  for  the 
purpose  and  are  unusually  attractive  in 
appearance. 

Several  of  the  schools  have  found  it 
advisable  to  provide  soapstones  or  hot- 
water  bottles  which  are  placed  at  the  chil- 
dren's feet  in  very  cold  weather.  Some 
difficulty  with  the  use  of  the  soapstones  has 
been  found  in  Providence,  where  experience 
showed  that  the  thin,  poor  soles  of  the 
children's  cheap  shoes  were  rapidly  cracked 
and  ruined  by  the  effect  of  the  heat  from 


132  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

the  stones.  This  has  been  obviated  by 
having  the  child  take  off  his  shoes  and 
replace  them  with  the  felt  shoes  belonging 
to  the  school. 

One  device  which  has  proved  very  suc- 
cessful in  keeping  the  feet  of  the  children 
warm  is  to  provide  each  child  with  a  wooden 
foot-box  about  two  feet  long  by  a  foot  and 
a  half  wide  and  a  foot  high.  These  foot- 
boxes  are  usually  lined  with  quilting  or 
some  other  padding,  and  a  hot  soapstone 
or  water-can  is  placed  in  the  bottom  under 
the  feet  when  necessary.  These  boxes  have 
been  found  to  furnish  the  best  arrangement 
for  keeping  the  children's  feet  warm  on 
very  cold  days. 

Sitting-out  bags  may  be  purchased  from 
dealers  in  sanatorium  equipment  or  made 
as  required.  A  Boston  firm  is  now  furnish- 
ing them  for  about  $3.00  each.  The  sitting- 
out  bag  is  made  of  heavy  blanketing  and 
covered  with  brown  canvas.  They  are  cut 
and  stitched  so  as  to  conform  with  the 
shape  of  the  chair  and  attached  to  it  by 
tape  at  different  points  to  prevent  the  child 
in  the  bag  from  slipping  off. 


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Handwork  receives  as  much  attention  as  health  and  head 
work  on  the  Southfield,  New  York  City 


Tables   and   chairs   are  substituted  for  desks  and  seats  in 
the  fresh-air  rooms  of  the  Graham  School,  Chicago 


CONSTRUCTION  AND  CLOTHING     133 

Experience  has  shown  that  the  chil- 
dren are  very  apt  to  regard  these  bags  as 
ideal  places  for  collecting  and  guarding  a 
miscellaneous  collection  of  the  treasures 
of  childhood,  including  food  supplies,  which 
they  store  up  for  future  possible  need.  This 
propensity  of  the  children  constitutes  a 
genuinely  serious  objection  to  sitting-out 
bags.  Another  objection  is  that  a  bag  which 
is  shaped  to  the  chair  is  not  convenient  for 
use  in  reclining-chairs  or  when  the  child 
is  lying  in  bed. 

In  order  to  overcome  these  objections 
Dr.  Carrington  has  developed  a  simple 
cheap  bag  which  can  be  made  at  home  or 
manufactured  in  large  quantities  at  a  low 
price.  This  bag  is  so  arranged  that  it  can 
be  opened  out  flat  for  brushing  and  airing, 
and  when  closed  and  buckled  it  is  perfectly 
tight  and  wind-proof.  Such  a  bag  is  a 
great  improvement  over  the  old-style  se wed- 
up  bag. 

The  Rhode  Island  State  Board  of  Health 
loans  upon  application  a  miniature  model 
of  a  sitting-out  bag  with  the  following 
directions  for  making: 


134  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

The  sitting-out  bag  should  be  made  to 
suit  the  patient  —  a  small  one  for  a  child, 
and  a  longer  one  with  more  turned  up  at  the 
bottom  for  a  tall  person.  Obtain  the  fol- 
lowing materials: 

7  yds.  outing  flannel $0.70 

6  rolls  cotton   batting 60 

1  spool  linen  thread 10 

1  piece  of  braid 10 

6  or  7  layers  of  newspaper 

The  flannel  should  be  spread  on  a  flat 
surface  and  one-half  of  same  covered  first 
with  batting;  second,  six  or  seven  layers  of 
newspapers;  third,  a  second  layer  of  cotton 
waste.  Spread  the  other  half  of  the  flannel 
over  this,  tack  with  a  strong  thread  like  a 
mattress,  and  stitch  all  around  the  edge. 

You  now  have  a  long  strip  which  should 
be  turned  up  at  the  bottom  1|  yards.  Sew 
up  the  edges  25  in.  Attach  tapes  to  top  of 
flap  and  to  top  corners  of  bag. 

While  arrangements  are  being  made  to 
provide  for  the  comfort  of  the  children  in 
the  open-air  school  the  teacher  should  not 
be  forgotten.  She  should  be  provided  with 
a  long  heavy  wool  or  fur  coat,  a  fur  cap  and 


CONSTRUCTION  AND  CLOTHING      135 

mittens,  and  felt  shoes.     There  should  also 
be  laid  under  her  chair  a  piece  of  thick 


Dr.  Carrington's  Sitting-out  Bag 


carpet  or  rug  to  help  in  protecting  the  feet, 
and  in  very  cold  weather  she  is  likely  to 
find  a  foot-box  a  comfortable  addition  to 
her  equipment. 


FORMS  FOR  RECORD-KEEPING 


CHAPTER  IX 

FORMS  FOR  RECORD -KEEPING 

SO  FAR  few  forms  have  been  developed 
for  keeping  the  individual  records  of 
the  pupils  in  open-air  schools.  That  such 
forms  are  needed  is  clear,  and  it  is  equally 
certain  that  they  must  be  adapted  to  the 
peculiar  conditions  maintaining  in  the  new 
class  of  schools.  They  must  be  primarily 
records  of  progress,  not  mere  statements  of 
such  commonly  kept  data  as  enrolment, 
attendance,  class  standing,  etc.,  nor  even 
records  which  will  only  record  the  physical 
condition  of  the  children  upon  entering  or  at 
one  or  two  stated  times  during  the  school 
year.  The  one  important  question  is 
whether  or  not  children  are  steadily  making 
progress,  and,  above  all,  physical  progress. 
Diligent  inquiry  among  open-air  schools 
now  in  operation  has  brought  to  light  only 
three  record  forms  designed  to  record  such 

139 


140  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

facts.  The  Providence  and  Chicago  schools 
are  using  individual  cards  for  recording 
the  facts  about  each  pupil,  and  in  Hartford 
a  weight  chart  is  used  which  shows  in 
graphic  form  the  fluctuations  in  weight  of 
each  child  from  week  to  week. 

Facing  page  141  is  a  facsimile  of  one  of 
the  Providence  cards  filled  in  with  data 
concerning  one  of  the  children  of  that 
school. 

As  a  mere  record  of  social  and  physical 
facts  it  seems  very  well  adapted  to  its 
purpose.  It  is  not,  however,  so  designed 
as  to  record  progress  satisfactorily. 

The  reverse  of  the  card  is  simply  ruled 
horizontally  and  in  columns,  and  it  is  the 
practice  of  the  school  authorities  in  Provi- 
dence to  record  in  these  spaces  the  results 
of  the  periodical  weighing  and  the  haemo- 
globin tests.  The  card  does  not,  however, 
provide  for  any  uniform  method  of  record- 
ing these  data. 

Something  of  an  improvement  over  the 
Providence  card  is  found  in  the  form  which 
was  used  in  the  Chicago  school  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1 909.     As  it  was  realized  at  the  outset 


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RECORD-KEEPING  141 

that  this  was  merely  a  summer  school 
and  would  be  maintained  for  a  short  term 
only,  the  card  was  designed  to  record  the 
facts  for  each  child  for  a  term  of  six  weeks. 
It  served  this  purpose  very  satisfactorily, 
but  could  not  be  so  adapted  as  to  serve  for 
an  entire  school  year.  A  facsimile  of  this 
card  is  shown  on  page  142. 

A  valuable  feature  found  in  the  Provi- 
dence card,  but  absent  in  the  Chicago  one, 
is  the  provision  for  recording  the  family 
history  and  the  personal  history  of  the  child. 

One  form  in  use  in  the  school  of  Hart- 
ford, Connecticut,  is  an  improvement  over 
the  forms  already  considered  in  that  it 
provides  for  a  graphic  representation  of 
one  most  important  datum:  the  fluctuations 
in  the  weight  of  each  child.  No  attempt  is 
made  in  this  form  to  register  anything  else 
than  facts  respecting  the  child's  weight. 
The  chart  is  extremely  simple.  It  consists 
of  a  form  ruled  horizontally  and  vertically, 
each  horizontal  space  corresponding  to  one 
pound  in  weight  and  each  vertical  space  to 
one  week  in  time. 

Thus  in  the  case  of  Camella,  whose  weight 


142 


OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 


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RECORD-KEEPING 


143 


chart  is  reproduced,  the  weight  upon  enter- 
ing the  school  in  the  week  beginning  Jan- 
uary 3  was  76|  pounds.  A  dot  was  made 
in  the  square  of  the  chart  corresponding 


WEIGHT  CHART. 

Name,  CameUaA. 


91 


HARTFORD  OPEN-AIR   SCHOOL 

Age,  12  years      Normal  Weight,  91.2 


90 

^6 
tl 
66 

^5 
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63 
62 
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60 

79 
16 

n 


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ill 


144  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

to  this  weight  and  to  the  first  week  to  record 
this  fact.  \Vlien  Camella  was  weighed  dur- 
ing the  second  week  she  had  so  increased 
in  weight  that  she  weighed  nearly  82  pounds. 
A  dot  was  placed  in  the  corresponding 
square  of  the  chart  and  the  two  dots  con- 
nected by  a  line.  This  process,  repeated 
each  week  as  time  went  on,  shows  that  she 
steadily  increased  in  weight  for  the  first 
six  weeks,  lost  in  the  seventh,  and  increased 
again  during  the  eighth  week. 

In  the  upper  left-hand  corner  of  the 
chart  there  is  a  small  cross  just  above  the 
91 -pound  level.  This  indicates  that  the 
school  authorities  considered  the  normal 
weight  for  a  girl  of  Camella's  age  to  be  91.2 
pounds,  and  that  the  difference  between 
this  weight  and  the  weight  actually  recorded 
shows  the  degree  to  w^hich  the  girl  was  below 
normal  weight. 

In  this  process  of  reporting  progress  an 
upward  trend  of  the  line  from  week  to  week 
indicates  that  all  is  going  well,  whereas 
a  downward  trend  means  that  there  is 
something  wrong  and  something  needs 
attention.     The     record     of     the     normal 


RECORD-KEEPING  145 

weight,  which  may  be  regarded  somewhat 
in  the  light  of  an  ideal  to  which  it  is  aimed 
to  raise  the  child,  is  interesting,  but  of 
doubtful  value.  The  normal  weight  for 
a  certain  age,  as  the  term  is  generally  used, 
simply  means  the  average  weight  which 
is  secured  from  the  recorded  weights  of 
a  great  many  individuals  all  of  a  given 
age.  While  such  a  figure  is  interesting 
and  has  its  uses,  it  may  not  be  at  all  valuable 
as  an  indication  of  the  best  possible  weight 
for  any  given  individual. 

Two  interesting  forms  are  used  in  the 
Franklin  Park  School  in  Boston.  The  first 
is  a  personal  record  sheet  which  is  filled 
out  by  the  child  himself  every  day  and  has 
on  it  suflficient  spaces  so  that  one  sheet  lasts 
for  one  week. 

The  headings  under  which  the  child 
makes  his  entries  each  day  are  eloquent 
testimony  of  some  of  the  fundamental 
differences  between  open-air  schools  and 
those  of  the  conventional  type.  The  fact 
that  the  child  records  such  things  as  the  hour 
of  sunset,  the  direction  of  the  wind,  read- 
ing of  the  thermometer,   as  well   as  data 


146  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

PERSONAL  RECORD  — FR.\NKL1N  PARK  SCHOOL 


Day   

Hour              

Sunrise        

Sunset    

Length  of  day       

Gain  or  loss  in  day         

Direction  of  wind 

Xind  of  rlniids 

Precipitation    

Rain  gauge                

Weather  report      

Moon's  phases 

Evening  star 

Morning  star           

Comet,  when  seen 

Reading  of  thermometer 

Movement  of  bowels 

Times  urinating  during  day. 
Cough?      

Raise?                        

What  I  ate  for  supper  at  home 
What  I  ate  for  breakfast 

What  I  do  when  I  get  home. 
Report  of  matron 

RECORD-KEEPING  147 

PERSONAL  TERM  RECORD-FRANKLEN  PARK  SCHOOL 


Date 

Absent      .... 

Tardy 

Car  record    .     .     . 
Weight    .... 
Height     .... 
Glasses  needed .     . 

Hearing   {^j^     ;     ; 

Baths  at  home  .     .     . 
Baths  at  school      .     . 

Care    of    school    coats, 
hats,  mittens,  wristers 
Walks  for  observation 
Games  and  free  play 
Breathing  exercises    . 

Bag  drill 

W^ash  room  .... 
Care  of  paper  bags    . 
Care  of  teeth     .     .     . 
Care  of  nails     .     .     . 
Deportment.     .     .     . 
Time  in  reclining  chair 

Truant 

Manual  training    .     . 

Cooking 

Scholarship  .... 

Sent  to  principal   .     . 

148  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

concerning  his  physical  well-being,  shows 
how  different  an  aspect  school  work  takes 
on  under  the  new  conditions. 

The  second  of  the  forms  mentioned  is 
the  personal  term  record  which  is  filled  out 
by  the  principal  and  which  has  spaces  for 
recording  the  essential  facts  about  each 
child  for  one-half  of  the  school  year.  Here 
again  the  information  recorded  is  of  a  kind 
entirely  novel  in  ordinary  school  practice. 


THE  NEED   FOR   OPEN-AIR 
SCHOOLS 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   NEED   FOR   OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

THE  open-air  school,  as  it  has  been 
developed  in  America,  is  primarily 
a  school  for  caring  for  children  who  are 
suffering  from  tuberculosis  or  predisposed 
to  the  disease.  In  short,  it  is  essentially 
a  therapeutic  agent  for  a  special  class 
of  sufferers.  In  Europe  the  aim  has 
been  quite  different  and  distinctly  broader. 
This  is  indicated  in  the  term  "open-air- 
recovery  schools,"  which  is  frequently  used 
abroad. 

The  pupils  for  whom  the  schools  have 
been  designed  abroad  are  physically  debili- 
tated children  who  are  suffering  from 
an£emia  and  various  forms  of  incipient 
disease,  but  who  are  not  necessarily  even 
in  the  "  pretubercular "  class.  They  are 
children  who  are  able  to  attend  the  regular 
schools  and  even  to  some  extent  to  profit 

151 


152  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

from  the  instruction  given,  but  whose  vitality 
has  been  greatly  impaired. 

For  these  children  the  open-air-recovery 
school  has  been  devised.  Its  province  is 
to  carry  on  the  instruction  of  the  children 
v^^ith  the  help  of  improved  methods  and 
surroundings  while  at  the  same  time  endeav- 
ouring to  cure  or  ameliorate  the  ailments 
from  which  they  suffer. 

From  the  administrative  viewpoint  two 
questions  at  once  arise.  The  first  is  that 
of  cost,  and  the  second,  the  question  how 
many  of  these  schools  should  be  provided 
to  fill  adequately  the  existing  need.  The 
question  of  the  expense  of  maintaining 
the  schools  is  treated  in  the  chapter  on 
"Cost";  that  of  the  indirect  economies  in 
lives  and  expenditure  to  be  effected  through 
establishing  these  new  schools  as  preven- 
tive agents  may  well  be  considered  here. 

In  the  first  place  what  do  deaths  of  school 
children  from  tuberculosis  cost  us  each 
year  ?  According  to  the  report  of  the 
United  States  Commissioner  of  Education 
for  1908  there  are  in  the  schools  of  this 
country,  public  and  private,  some  18,200,000 


THE  NEED  FOR  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS    153 

children.  These  children  range  in  age 
from  five  to  nineteen  years.  Recent  studies 
show  that  about  43  per  cent,  of  them  are 
between  the  ages  of  five  and  nine,  50  per 
cent,  between  those  of  10  and  14,  and 
7  per  cent,  between  the  ages  of  15  and  19. 

Now  the  reports  of  the  Census  tell  us 
that  deaths  from  all  forms  of  tuberculosis 
among  each  100,000  children  are  each  year 
as  follows: 

Ages  Deaths  per  100,000 

5-  9  17.9 

10-14  34.5 

15-19  143.1 

These  data  enable  us  to  compute  that 
the  number  of  school  children  who  die  each 
year  in  this  country  from  all  forms  of  tuber- 
culosis is  about  6,400. 

The  average  age  at  which  these  children 
die  is  about  twelve  and  one-half  years. 
We  shall  not  be  far  wrong  if  we  estimate 
that  they  have  had  six  years  of  schooling 
each.  This  schooling  has  been  paid  for  at 
the  average  rate  of  $30  per  year  for  each 
child.     The  money  loss  which  is  sustained 


154  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

by  the  community  in  each  case  amounts 
to  $180  for  schooling  alone.  The  aggregate 
loss  each  year  from  this  cause  reaches  a 
total  of  $1,152,000.  It  is  impossible  to 
compute  in  money  terms  the  loss  in  doctors' 
fees,  wrecked  hopes,  and  ruined  homes, 
but  enough  has  been  told  to  indicate  the 
serious  character  of  the  problem. 

Turning  now  to  the  other  side  of  the 
question,  how  many  open-air  schools  should 
be  provided  to  meet  adequately  the  need 
which  exists.^  The  evidence  from  which 
we  may  answer  the  question  is  fragmentary 
but  fairly  consistent. 

Dr.  Frederick  Rose,  who  is  admittedly  the 
foremost  English  authority  on  the  subject, 
says  that  from  3  to  5  per  cent,  of  all  school 
children  are  of  such  a  type  that  they  may  pro- 
fit from  instruction  in  open-air  schools,  but 
cannot  properly  be  cared  for  in  ordinary  ones. 

According  to  figures  published  in  the 
tenth  annual  report  of  the  City  Superintend- 
ent of  Schools  of  New  York  for  1908 
physical  examinations  among  more  than 
210,000  children  in  that  city  show  that 
those  suffering  from  malnutrition,  cardiac 


THE  NEED  FOR  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS    155 

diseases,  and  pulmonary  diseases  amounted 
to  4  per  cent,  of  all. 

The  report  of  the  Department  of  School 
Hygiene  of  Boston  for  1907  shows  that 
the  children  suffering  from  malnutrition, 
anaemia,  cardiac  diseases,  and  tuberculosis 
constitute  2.25  per  cent,  of  all  the  children 
examined. 

The  National  Association  for  the  Study 
and  Prevention  of  Tuberculosis  has  issued 
a  statement  to  the  effect  that  investigations 
in  Stockholm,  Sweden,  showed  1.61  per 
cent,  of  the  school  children  were  suffering 
from  tuberculosis. 

Medical  inspection  in  Atlanta,  Georgia, 
in  1909  showed  that  pupils  suffering  from 
malnutrition,  anaemia,  cardiac  diseases,  and 
tuberculosis  were  5.8  per  cent,  of  the  total 
school  membership. 

A  report  on  the  schools  of  St.  Paul  for 
1909  shows  that  children  suffering  from 
cardiac  diseases  and  tuberculosis  together 
were  2.7  per  cent,  of  all. 

A  report  from  Appleton,  Wisconsin,  shows 
3  per  cent,  of  the  children  suffering  from 
malnutrition. 


156  OPEN-AIR  SCHOOLS 

The  first  selection  of  pupils  needing 
open-air  treatment  in  the  Boston  schools 
was  made  in  the  first  part  of  the  school 
year  1909-10.  It  has  already  been  referred 
to  in  the  chapter  on  "Open-air  Schools  in 
the  United  States."  The  result  was  that  5 
per  cent,  of  the  children  were  found  by  the 
school  physicians  to  be  in  need  of  the 
treatment  afforded  by  the  open-air  classes. 

In  April,  1910,  Dr.  Henry  R.  Hopkins, 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Open-air 
Schools  of  the  city  of  Buffalo,  New  York, 
said  that  about  7  per  cent,  of  the  school 
children  of  that  city  needed  the  same  sort 
of  treatment. 

All  of  these  different  pieces  of  evidence 
indicate  that  in  the  average  city-school 
system  the  children  who  are  in  need  of  such 
treatment  as  that  afforded  by  the  open-air 
school  constitute  from  3  to  5  per  cent, 
of  the  entire  membership.  It  would  prob- 
ably not  be  far  out  of  the  way  to  say  that 
of  these  at  least  one-third,  or  from  1  to 
2  per  cent,  of  all,  are  either  definitely 
suffering  from  tuberculosis  or  are  pre- 
tubercular. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


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BENDIX,  DR.  B.  Ueber  die  Charlottenburger  Wald- 
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Verhandlagen  der  VII.  Jahresversammlung  des 
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BIENSTOCK,  DR.  Die  Waldschule  in  Mulhausen. 
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BJORKMAN,  EDWIN.  The  Outdoor  School.  Van 
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BRYCE,  DR.  P.  H.     Open-air  Schools  and  Preventoria. 

Med.  Review  of  Reviews,  August,  1909.     New  York 
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BYLES,  A.  HOLDEN.  The  Open-air  School.  The 
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IfiO 


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CARRINGTON,  DR.  THOMAS  S.  How  to  Build  and 
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CLARK,  IDA  HOOD.  Open-air  Schools.  Proceed- 
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HYAMS    ISABEL   F.,   and  MINOT,   DR.    JAMES. 

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LENNHOFF,  DR.  RUDOLF.  Walderholungstatten 
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MORIN,  JEANNE.  An  Open-air  School  in  France. 
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164  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

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BIBLIOGRAPHY  165 

WILLIAMS,  RALPH  P.  Sheffield  Open-air  School. 
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